


Night At The Woods

by Sardonicc



Series: Everything's Alright [2]
Category: Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - HorrorSwap, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Underswap, Blood and Gore, Crossover, Crushes, Denial of Feelings, Developing Friendships, Domestic Fluff, Enemies to Friends, Eventual Relationships, F/F, F/M, Female Reader, Jealous Sans, Love Triangles, M/M, One-Sided Attraction, Other, Overprotective Papyrus, POV Alternating, Racism, Reader didnt ask for all of this, Reader just wanted some peace and quiet, Reader-Insert, Reverse Harem, Slow Burn, Some Plot, attempt at fluff, dark themes, smol sans - Freeform, spin-off of a spin-off
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-03-30 12:28:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 37,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13951560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sardonicc/pseuds/Sardonicc
Summary: When Sans has been spending a lot of time in the woods with a new friend he doesn't want Papyrus to meet, he becomes worried and highly suspicious when a number of people from town slowly start to turn up missing around the same time he leaves to visit his 'friend' and decides to tag along.Similar to my horrortale story 'In Her Eyes' but takes place on the surface and follows the US! Brothers.





	1. Too Tired To Care Right Now

**Author's Note:**

> Very old idea I had around the same time i came up with another fic i wrote that I'm trying to revive by writing it. Will probably delete or stop writing the story AGAIN before it gets that far, a lot of it is mood dependent. Reverse Harem for Au's I haven't see fics of like Horrorswap, Swapfell, Reaperswap and more may be added, but that won't show up until much later chapters. Pov is told mainly from papyrus. Reader doesn't show until chapter 7 so you can skip to it if you want. other characters dont show up until chapter 13

Papyrus lazily peeks his eye socket open curiously as Sans rushes past him and into his bedroom for the fifth time to come back out dressed in something goofier than the last outfit he had on. He raises his brow bone when a faint scent of Bone Cologne follows behind him as he rushed back through the living room, and off to the kitchen as another symphony of loud clattering and banging of pots and pans and the fridge being ravaged for the second time meet his ear holes.

Sans excitedly mumbles to himself before 'Mweh heh heh'ing as the sound of something Papyrus could only guess was rocks hitting the bottom of a metal pot before the cabinets slam shut. The clattering of silver wear rattling against one another as drawers open and close once he's found whatever he was looking for and starts chopping something up then rushes past him again, and into the bathroom. Papyrus leans forward a little to watch as Sans dabs NTT Brand Anime Powder behind his ear then runs back into the kitchen.

The curiosity of what his brother was up to getting the better of him Papyrus hauls himself off the couch and sluggishly drags his slippered feet to the Kitchen to (no)surprise find it in disaster.

There were splatters of sauces, liquids, and condiments all over the cabinets and floor. Smashed fruits and vegetables littering the counter and stove as three pots overflow with something boiling that resembled sludge. He sighs as Sans dabs marinara sauce behind his ear, and quickly reach over to one of the pots to stir it with a ladle. He knew Sans got messy when he was passionately cooking but wished he would just _try_ not to turn the kitchen into a disaster zone when he did. His dim eyelights scan over the room once more sighing through his nose hole.

He definitely wasn't about to clean up this mess by himself. He's about to voice it when he feels his nonexistent stomach flop as he watches Sans pull out the ladil to find the end disintegrated away and nopes out before he asks him to taste test something. He was sick for a whole week the last time he decided to humor his little brother after he practiced so hard on his cooking skills.

Sans didn't normally cook " _food_ " unless Alphys and Undyne were coming over, and he doesn't recall Sans saying anything about a game or movie night at their place this week. He pulls out his phone to shoot Undyne a text to see if they were coming over to give them a warning before heading to his room to escape the burning foul smell coming from the kitchen when Sans rushes past him again to the bathroom again. Papyrus watches as Sans dabs NTT-Brand Bishie cream behind his ear this time before rushing back.

His phone pings and he unlocks it to read the message.

 **Undyne** : _Nope, That's Saturday_!

If they weren't coming over, that meant Sans was experimenting again and feels himself shudder. But then whats with the cologne and anime powder?

Maybe it was for Toriel, He remembers Sans saying something about her inviting him over for pie, but that was a few weeks ago. Come to think of it, Sans has been dressing up and going out a lot more to come back home happier than when he left lately. Were him and Toriel a thing now? He couldn't really tell with those two. He knew they liked each other but didn't ask about their relationship together. But if shes got Sans reading that dating manual again he should probably see just how strong his feelings were.

He turns back to head to the kitchen just to watched as Sans dumps coffee grounds into the pot and decides not to ask to spare his health and escapes to his room. Collapsing onto his bed he buries his skull into the pillow so that the nasty smell can't attack his vomer bone again.

Not long after he hears the front door close as Sans leaves.

He hoped he would be alright and careful on his own where ever he was going, there had been a lot of people turning up missing from town recently. though it was mainly humans a few monsters had gone missing as well, families of the ones that were lost had been putting up missing posters all over the neighborhood and asked for the residents to please keep an eye out since they lived close to the woods at the base of Mt. Ebott, which was known for people going to and disappearing. He also hoped he would stay out of the part of town where a couple of anti-monster protests that lead to a few murders had been. it had been in the news a lot lately, but the police decided it wasn't worth trying to stop before they happened despite being aware that some humans brought weapons.

After arriving to the surface, monsters quickly find out how terrible humans can be, hate groups formed and targeted the species and anyone who supported them upon their arrival. Humans weren't in the slightest bit accepting or welcoming to monster kind as much as they had hoped for them to be. They were all shocked to find that they couldn't even accept their own kind due to redundancies like ethnicity, gender, sexuality and a bunch of other things that made no sense to hate someone for. Thankfully he and his brother managed to get a house away from the city where monsters had it the roughest to not have to deal with it.  _Much_.

Even though the houses on their block had a large amount of land that surrounded them, It apparently wasn't enough for a few of the people that lived in the area. The moment he and Sans moved in, a lot of people suddenly decided it was time to move away, which just left a few families further down the block, and their closest neighbor, some paranoid old man that wasn't very friendly. He didn't like the way he looked at them, but to be fair, a lot of humans didn't sit right with seeing walking talking skeletons. But after a few months of getting used to him they had come to find out he wasn't prejudiced like most of the humans they met, the man was just.

 _Strange_.

Always rambling on and on about the woods behind their homes being cursed and once saw him walking around in the field that lay just before the woods in the middle of the night with a flashlight, duffel bag and shotgun when he went out for a smoke before heading to work. Sure the guy could have just been hunting, but then he started shooting erratically in multiple directions which made him duck into the house. He made sure Sans stayed away from him after that, the man was clearly trigger happy and unstable, and now that he knew the guy walked around the field behind their house at night with a gun he had defiantly been more uneasy about his and his brother's safety.

He had started to consider them moving to the city since it did have more monsters living there but their safety there would be worst, and he didn't exactly have the money to move. On top of that finding homes that rented to monsters wasn't easy. Sighing tiredly turns onto his back and folding his arms behind his skull and lets his eye sockets shut as he tried not to worry about what his brother was up to too much for the time being.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing happeneds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have this awful habit of deleting my fics when i get depressed so heads up.

Papyrus jolts awake to the front door slamming shut and his brothers excited chuckling as he runs around the house. Yawning, he stretches out his stiffness from lying still for so long, letting the magic joints connecting his bones together pop and crack as he rattles them and yawns. Pulling a hand from behind his head he rubs at his eye sockets and blinks staring tiredly up at the ceiling waiting for the noise to stop so he could fall back asleep.

5 minutes go by and it doesn't. Groaning a little he lazily pats down his shorts pockets until he finds his phone, pulling it out to check the time. It's 2:17 p.m. he has two missed calls, one from Asgore, one from Muffet and a text from Undyne. He thought Sans would be gone longer, but was glad he came back home alright and in good mood from the sounds of it. Sighing he sits up and hunches over his knees rubbing his skull still trying to wake fully up and looks at the text from Undyne first.

It's a picture of her and Alphys in matching swimsuits at the beach. He smiles softly at the photo, happy that they were official now. Back in the underground Undyne had the biggest of crushes on her for the longest time and wouldn't shut up about it, she would even write fictions of her and Alphys having a domestic life together and make him read them whenever he came to over to her lab. Looks like her dreams of them happening in real life came true.

At least they were able to have a good time with all the mess going on lately between monsters and humans. He knew Alphys wouldn't let it get in the way of enjoying their new life on the surface, but Undyne was a lot more sensitive to these things. The depression from what she did in the underground didn't improve too much when they got to the surface.even with the amalgamations back together with their families she sill suffered with the guilt. But on the bright side, with her background in science she managed to nail a high paying job at a University College and was happy with it. She asked him to be her assistant but he had declined it.

He didn't want to admit it but he was starting to become less tolerant of humans each time he went to the city and hated himself for it. He felt dirty for thinking that way, but couldn't help it as of recently. he'd been dealing with a lot of racists both at and outside of work, Undyne had assured him that he wouldn't face any of that there but he was skeptical.

Tapping the voicemail he listens to the message Asgore left saying that he wanted them to come over for dinner tonight and then to the one Muffet left, she had new spider cider for him to try to see if it was any good before putting it on the menu and wanted him to stop by for a visit. He hadn't been to her cafe in a while so he guessed it was fair. He needed to do some grocery shopping now anyways thanks to Sans ambition to cook...whatever _that_ was this morning.

He looks over to the large stack of letters and packages of mail that's been collecting on in the corner of his room for the past three weeks, he also had to send those back to the post office at some point. He was sure whoever (f/n l/n) was, is missing their mail, but when he looked at the address on them it didn't match any of the ones on their street. He even tried searching it on google maps but it just took him to the woods behind their house with no other information. It was probably a bug on the website that needed to be fixed.

Getting up from bed and yawns reaching under his black tank top to scratch at his floating ribs before grabbing a pair of jeans and a grey tank top off the floor, smell checking them and throwing them over his nala and radius along with a [mustard yellow hoodie ](https://www.storenvy.com/products/21479549-lazy-print-cotton-hoodie-sweater-coat-yyl-239-1)at the foot of his bed with a Lays chips logo over the front but instead of the word Lays it spelt out Lazy. It had been a gag gift from Sans but he still liked it. Maybe it was a little strange, but sometimes it was nice to have someone call you out on being lazy, _even though nothing could be further from the truth._

Leaving out he heads downstairs to the bathroom to take a shower and to check on Sans and start cleaning the kitchen _together_ this time before leaving out for the rest of the afternoon. As he come down the stairs he watches as Sans bounces excitedly around clutching something to his chest tightly with a larger than normal smile on his face.

"What's that?" Sans turns to look at his older brother as he reaches the bottom step, pulling the item away from his chest raising it up he shows him. It was a long [dark blue scarf](https://www.storenvy.com/products/18736003-galaxy-scarf-universal-star-woollen-shawl) with a quite frankly amazing star print on it. Papyrus's brow bones raise as his dim eyelights scan over it and Sans crosses the room to give him a closer look. He reaches out taking it into his hand, the soft cool material of the smooth wool sliding between his phalanges. It looked somewhat handmade but was done well and he makes an intrigued sound when he unfolds it, it was a lot larger than it looked.

"Isn't it magnificent?" Sans voice cracks from his excitement.

"Sure is," he smiles. "Where'd you get it from?" 

"My friend gave it to me!" Sans said as his smile turned gigantic and stars fill his eye sockets.

"Wowzers, that was nice.." he said handing it back to Sans who eagerly takes it back.

"Oh! And look, look!" He swished it around him as he would a cape and wrapped it around himself like a cloak and Papyrus gives him a woo, complimenting how much cooler and mysterious he looked now. he hasn't seen anything like it, sans turns away from him he hears him deeply inhale making Papyrus quirk a brow bone and squint at him. 

_What the hell?_

_"Are you sniffing it?"_

Sans stiffens glancing back at Papyrus out of the corner of his socket. "N-no???" 

 _He totally was_.

"Go put it away, and start cleaning up that mess you made in the kitchen, we gotta leave in a little bit." He said sternly and Sans eye lights lose their shine at the mention of chores.

"Don't worry I'll help ya after I shower. Asgore wants us over for dinner again and I gotta make a few stops first."

"I was just getting ready to leave again, I had plans already!" Sans frowns. Papyrus points in the direction of the kitchen and Sans tsks.

"Papy I was already going somewhere in a little bit, can't you go without me?" He lowers his arm stuffing it into his pocket. He could, _but he didn't want to._ he hated heading into town by himself and needed the company. "Nah, he's already expecting both of us, go start on the kitchen." Sighing dramatically Sans reluctantly pulls off the scarf and carefully folds it up gently placing it on the coffee table.

" _Fine, mom_." Sans grumbles before walking the opposite to the kitchen and Papyrus turns to head towards the bathroom when Sans suddenly rushes past him.

" _I'll be real quick I promise!_ " He blinks watching as Sans quickly dabs NTT-Brand Cute Juice behind his ear and tries to run out the front door.

" _Sans go start on that mess, we don't have time for this_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a reverse harem btw


	3. Things Will Get Better In The Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing happeneds again.

It's 3:07 p.m. when they both finish, Papyrus had to skip his shower to make sure Sans wouldn't run off to leave him with all of the work again and told him he could visit for a short while once they cleaned the kitchen together. He had wondered why Sans had started primping up a lot lately. He knew someone was the reason Sans was starting to buy Napstaton's beauty products again, but apparently wasn't Toriel to his surprise when he had asked. Putting the mop away, he heads to the bathroom to watch as Sans dabs NTT-Brand Cute Juice behind his ear.

"Hey Sans?" He leans against the doorway wondering who it could be watching as Sans then dabs NTT-Brand Attraction Slime behind his ear.

"Huh?" Sans dabs Beauty Yogurt behind his ear.

"Who are you meeting with?"

Sans blinks as he stares at himself in the mirror and realizes he doesn't have ears, quickly turning to his brother slinging the accumulated glob on the side of his skull onto the sink and gives him big smile.

"Ive got some stuff to do and then going to my friend's house again." He puts the jar of beauty yogurt down on the sink grabbing a towel to wipe it's remaining away and adjusts his scarf. Papyrus's brow bones raise in surprise, so it was his friend he was trying to impress like this? 

"Who?"

"J-just a friend, you don't know her." Sans stutters, glancing from his reflection to his older brother, a small blush starting to dust his cheekbones and clears his nonexistent throat before speaking again. "I met her a few weeks ago." Sans chirped.

"Oh" he says lightly, So that's where he's been going all the time for the past few days, He was trying to get to know a girl... That's...the best news he's heard from him in a long time, he only ever spent time with Alphys and Toriel, so this was more than great to hear. He was actually a little proud, It wasn't impossible for Sans to make friends per say, it was just that a lot of people often didn't show him the time of day outside of his job. He was always treated as a child back in the underground even when Alphys gave him the title of Royal Guard In Training to make people show him a little more respect.

"Bye, see you later!" Sans quickly says as he pushes past him to leave.

"Be safe and back in an hour, ok?" He shouts to him as he bolts out the door.

Papyrus heads to the bathroom to shower he hears the back door open and shut accompanied by a very slow footfall that makes him peek out from the shower curtains. _Was Sans already back?_ He had only been in there 8 minutes, what happened he thought he was going out? He hears him walk around the house slowly accompanied by the occasional sound of something being picked up and dragged or something being picked up and placed down again like someone would to items at a yard sale. It sounded like he was looking for something. When the footsteps reach the bathroom he calls to him getting ready to ask what's up.

"Sans?" His voice echoes off the bathroom walls and its quiet. "Did you leave something?" He yells and looks at the door to see his shadow just on the other side, he still doesn't say anything. Weird... He turns off the shower and hears him quickly shuffle away from the door and the back door slam shut. He quickly grabs a towel warping it around himself and shortcuts to the back door in the kitchen and looks out the window finding him already gone again. He goes to grab his phone off the dinning room table, drying off as he re-enters the living room to find some of the drawers of the tv stand open with their contents on the floor, the tv pushed away from the wall and the couch cushions on the floor. 

"What the hell Sans.." He uses his magic to fix everything back in its place before grabbing his cell and heading upstairs sending Sans a text. 

 **Papyrus** : _did you forget something?_

A few minutes later his phone pings.

 **Sans** : _Yeah sorry, I love you!"_

He decides not to question it anymore and gets dressed. he spends the rest of the hour texting Undyne and watching tv. When Sans gets back home he's smiling and cradling something.

"What's tha'cha got now?" He asks curiously and Sans tosses over the small plushie of a black and white dog with black and green button eyes. "Oh wow." He says as he turns the toy over in his hand, he hums raising his brow bones as he looks at it. It looked handmade, but well done aside from a loose red stitch hanging out of the neck. Sans heads upstairs as he loops his finger around it and pulls it hard hoping that it wasn't a main thread that could unravel it, it doesn't snap loose right away but when it does the rest of the stitching loosens and it start to fall apart. "Oh, whoops...." He glances up at the stairs and decides to put it down before it falls apart more placing it in the corner of the couch.

* * *

Grocery shopping was a bit hassle thanks to a number of discriminatory remarks being made while at the supermarket by both customers that wanted to harass them when they entered and a few employees that didn't want to help when they needed to find something, a few people who did know where the things they were looking for were kind enough to help them out when they needed it at least. When it came time to pay and leave they couldn't find any staff to ring them up and ended up being there for almost an hour until the manager finally came to do so himself apologizing for the wait and that the workers discriminating would be written up and fired. Sans didn't seem too bothered by it but he was already deeply chafed about it.

On the way out a short heavy set old woman with dark skin and short curled black hair wearing an ankle length floral dress and a purple cardigan over it stopped them. She immediately came off to him as that grandma that always shows you unconditional love and always fed you from the vibe her worried face and smile gave off. She spoke to Sans first complimenting him and asking how he was doing, his eyes went bright with happiness as a big smile spread on his face and went to hug her. 

She then apologizes to both of them for what they had to deal with inside the store and gave him the name of a street where a farmers market was held every other Saturday close by that had better produce and food than the market that was a lot more monster friendly. Also stating that there was a festival coming up in a month that she would be happy to see them at and hands him a flyer, she apologized again and wished them a blessed day before leaving. He thought it was a little out of the blue and wondered why she was being so familiar with Sans when he told him that she was part of the city council and he had actually met her once before with Queen Toriel. 

They get to the car to find a bunch of key marks and slurs scratched around the side and hood of it along with the tail lights being busted out. A couple of other cars had been hit too but it didn't lessen the anger he felt building up in him. On the way to Muffet's cafe a car with two men inside tale gated behind them honking aggressively, until they came to a red light. The car pulled up beside them in the other lane and a man wearing a MAGA hat yelled something to him that he couldn't make out with the window rolled up he decides to ignore him but ends up glancing over when the man waves for him to look them motions for him to roll down his window. He cracks it an inch while the man yells again.

"-said your tail light is busted! Did you know?" He rolls down his window a little more. "Yeah..." he wasn't going to let them try to intimidate him. Sans looks at him concernedly mumbling to ignore them and roll the window back up. The man shakes his head disappointingly as he looks over the key scratches in the door before turning to the driver and grabs something. the next moment the man turns back to him quickly slamming a brick into his window shattering part of it and hitting Papyrus in the side of his skull as broken glass flies all over him making Sans gasp. The men laugh flipping them off as they speed through the red light away.

Hissing in pain Papyrus sits there as the shock of what just happened sets in as Sans frantically asked if he was alright, after a few seconds without a word he pulls off to the side and turns off the car. Sans quickly unbuckles his seat belt and inspects his brother's skull gasping when he turns it to the side that was hit by the brick to find a deep fracture running along the side of his eye socket up to his crown and webbing cracks around his eye socket. He quickly reaches into the back seat to grab a random bag grocery bag and fishing inside it to yank out and rip open a package then breaks the frozen magic food in half and shoves it at him, he gingerly takes it shoving it into his mouth as Sans gets out of the passenger's seat rounding the car avoiding the oncoming traffic and ignoring the people that honked and drove threateningly close to him despite being well off the road, and tells him to scoot over.

They don't go to Muffet's. Sans drives them straight home.

When they get home it's 5:30. Papyrus stays put replaying everything that happened today as Sans grabs all of the groceries taking them inside the house. A little later he comes back out with a portable vacuum and cleans out the broken glass, glancing at his brother every now and again until he finished and gets in the car closing the door.

"...Papyrus?..." He calls to him quietly but he doesn't answer him, he looks deep in thought and Sans watches as his features slowly shift from irritation to a blank expression.

"Are you ok?..."

" . . . "

"I-i know some humans around here don't like us...But you shouldn't let that change how you see all of them. Some are really nice, like that lady you meet that gave you the flyer? Shes super duper nice!"

" . . . "

"..Do...you still want to go over to Asgore's for dinner?..." He still doesn't speak and they sit there in silence for a while then Sans starts the car and they head to Asgore's home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dont know what im doing


	4. Foot Prints

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner gets cut short.

Pulling into the driveway next to a light grey minivan it's about 6:18 p.m. when they arrive at Asgore's home, Sans turns off the car and looks over at his brother, the entire ride there was silent. Papyrus hadn't said a word since the incident at the red light. Sans sighs through his nose hole before getting ready to say something, but Papyrus opens the door getting out before he can and rounds the car to cross the yard. Sans gets out of the car to follow suit stopping him before he reaches the porch steps.

"I'm sorry for what happened today." Papyrus turns around to look at him.

"Why are _you_ apologizing?" Sans frowns sighing through his nose hole again and looks at the ground before looking back up at him.

"I-I..well _someone_ has to, even if I had nothing to do with it, I still want you to know that people are sorry for what stupid people do out of hate. They're just hurting and struggling with themselves inside because they're angry and confused with stuff they aren't used to and just don't know how to deal with it..." Papyrus's expression softens a little as he stares down at his little brother, he already knew that... but being reminded helped. Sans knew it helped...he had forgotten how smart Sans was when it came to insight. Even though Sans came off as immature to everyone he really wasn't, people just weren't used to his optimistic personality.

"Papy, I know things are hard to ignore sometimes but...i just don't want that to shape you...Don't let what they do or say get to you, don't let them have that power over you." Sans said, his tone a little stressed as his eye lights dim. That was the other thing, the fact that Sans never let anything negative get to him and control his emotions always was amazing to him, He made it seem so easy and was jealous of him for it.

Papyrus gives him a wry smile he didn't bother to put as much effort as he should have for him before it fades back to a tired frown.

"What makes you think I am bro?" He asked mono toned.

"I-i noticed you've been starting to stay home more and more after work, you don't even try to go to Muffet's anymore." Sans mumbles.

"Just been real tired lately, thassal." He said, his voice low as he stares at nothing. He felt tense from the sudden spotlight and couldn't shake the mild tension, he really wanted a smoke but he promised Sans he would quit if they ever got to the surface. It was a lie but he didn't need to know that, It was his only way to release most of his stress. Sighing he nodded in the direction of the porch.

"We should-"

"-R-right." They walk up the stone path, and up the steps then knock on the door once they reach the porch a few minutes later Asgore greets them with a frilly apron covered in flour and other kitchen stains on and welcomes them in with a warm and happy smile, glad that they came, unbeknown to what's happened earlier today and the conversation they just had in his front yard. Asgore removes his apron as he invites them inside, once in the dining room they take their seat at the table as he heads to the kitchen to grab dinner.

"Chara will be a little late, they decided to hang out with friends after school ended." He says as he came out of the kitchen with a large pan of snail loaf.

"That's alright!" Sans chirps. "Budding friendships are just as important to nurture as an appetite."

"Yes, I'm happy they've finally managed to make some friends. They've been having such a difficult time since the school year has started." Asgore sighs. "I was worried they wouldn't do well and would have to go back into homeschooling if things got any worst."

Dinner goes by well, Sans and Papyrus talk about their week leaving out the incident from earlier today. Papyrus tells him how work at the security office is going, while Sans discusses some new ideas he has for mascoting with Asgore and they come to an agreement to have hedges trimmed into the image of his face at the school, Sans then asks Asgore how he was doing with Toriel lately. He gingerly tries to avoid the topic of he and his ex-wife not wanting to say any distasteful during dinner by bringing up Papyrus joining Undyne at the university.  
Papyrus quickly changes the subject by bringing up the weird looking plushie Sans had asking him if Chara made it for him and Asgore looks at him confusedly.

"No, Chara doesn't sew." He said looking between the two skeletons waiting for one of them to elaborate about the plushie.

"Really?" Papyrus looks over to Sans, to be fair he didn't really ask where he got it to began with and he knew for a fact Toriel, and Undyne didn't, and defiantly not Alphys.

"He had this little thing, I thought he got it from them?" He said as Sans sinks a little in his seat. Papyrus continues to eye him, Sans didn't know how to sew either and he doubted that he just up and learned it on his own.

"I-i made it."

"..Really..." Papyrus asked monotone giving him a pointed look for lying.

"Yeah.." Sans starts to fidget under his older brothers gaze.

"Oh, That's neat! You didn't tell me you knew how to make stuffed animals, you must show me how to one day Sans." Asgore interrupts.

"U-uh l, sure. Can do." he gives Asgore a crooked smile still avoiding looking over to his brother. Papyrus continues to stare at him out the corner of his socket as Sans brow bones furrowed together, if his expression was anything to go by, it was clearly that he doesn't actually know how to. But he must have misread it as embarrassment.

"There is nothing to be embarrassed by, my boy! It's good to have a hobby that takes a lot of concentration to keep our mind off things." He says with an understanding tone. Sans slowly sits upright in his chair poking at his food with his fork before putting it down and is about to say something when the front door loudly slams shut making them all jump. They all look towards the living room watching as a bruised up Chara dumps their backpack on the floor and rushes to their room sniffling.

They all share a look between one another before Asgore sets down his utensils quickly excusing himself from the table and heads to the teenager's room. Sans and Papyrus get up to go see what's wrong heading into the back hall when they hear his muffled voice telling them to calm down and urgently asking the teen what happened to them.

"They hate me! All of them, why did we have to come here!?" Chara's voice was raspy and strained as they talked. They were probably crying for a while before getting home.

"Dear, please call down and tell me what happened-"

"I want to go home! I'm sick of getting picked on for stupid crap all the time, I'm sick of having to watch my back no matter where i go or what I'm doing because someones always freakin' trying to do something nasty to me!" Their voice wavers and they sniffle loudly again before sobbing.

"Chara.." Asgore's voice was low.

"I just want to go back!"

"Little one, I know...but you know we can't. As our ambassador, you have duties to monster and humankind." 

"Look at me! L-look, at what they did to my f-face! D..ad i-im s..so sick...of this." The start to cry again and Asgore says something to them the brothers can't make out and they hear the bedroom door open as he leaves out of the teen's room with a depressed expression on his face, he quickly fixes when he notices the brothers and Sans speaks.

"What happened?" Sans asked quietly.  
The kind goat man sighs tiredly rubbing the back of his furry neck and guides them out of the hallway into the living room.

"I'm afraid I'm going to I'm going to have to cut dinner short my friends, Chara...is having a hard time right now."

"The kiddo alright? Want us to go in and talk to 'em?" Papyrus asked slowly.

"No, they are.. Mostly alight." He says. " I'm afraid they got into a scuffle after school and are bruised up a bit. Nothing a little healing can't fix, but I think you two should leave. Thank you for coming over I enjoyed the company."

It's 7:42 when they leave. After saying there goodbyes for the night and wishing for them to get better soon the skeleton brothers get into the car and head home. Halfway there they pass by their closest neighbors home and Papyrus eyes the large old house with unease as Sans drives by it and he can't help but think about the old man and hope that he wasn't out tonight after the day he's had. He was already stressed out enough before work and just wanted to get some rest. He turns away to look out of the passenger's side when the car suddenly makes a sharp turn making his skull bang against the glass of the window as it skids onto the other side of the road violently yanking them forward to strain against their seat belts as the car comes to a screeching stop. He hisses shooting Sans a glare as he clutched the right side of his skull.

" _What the fu-"_

 _"-That dog!_ " Papyrus turns from Sans to look out the windshield to find a medium size white dog with black spots covering it's eyes and ear and a black spot on its side illuminated in the car's headlights holding something inside it's maw staring back at them. It stared at Sans for a long moment before shifting its eyes to Papyrus making him squint when he catches sight of its one green eye. It looked like a normal dog but...something..was.. _off_ about it, something familiar he couldn't put his phalange on bothered him deeply about it the long he stared at it. His eye lights flick down to the red stain on its chest and he grimaces. It looked like it was bleeding.

"You didn't hit it right?"

" _No! I turned and it jumped out of the way! I-i hope_." A minute goes by as they stare back at one another before the dog turns away, trotting into the field seemingly making a B line to the woods a mile away.

"Must be a stray..Have you seen it around before?" Papyrus asks and Sans continues to watch it until it stops at the edge of the field turning to look back at their car before it disappears into the trees. Not answering Sans slowly pulls off down the road again checking the rear view mirror every now and again. When they arrive home Sans gasps and Papyrus curses under his breath when they find their front door wide open and the lights in the living room on.

" _Fuck, stay right here_!" Papyrus growled out  and unbuckles his seat belt and kicking open the car barely running across the yard before he teleports away.

"Papyrus wait!" Sans quickly parks the car in front of the house speedily unbuckling his seat belt and scrambling out of the car slamming its door shut as he rushed in after his brother. He rushes up the porch steps almost tripping and notices a pair of muddy foot prints that trailed into the living room as he entered and red paw prints that tracked all over the living room carpet. Nothing was missing, but everything had been seemingly wrecked. The tv had been knocked onto the floor and broken, the couch was torn up and had a large red stain on one of the cushions. Everything else had been turned over or violently moved around as if whoever was inside was frantically looking for something. Sans looks back down to the foot prints tracked around the living room and into the dining room and clenched his hands into his scarf as anxiety bubbles behind his rib cage.

" _Papyrus_!" Sans hisses for his brother from the living room and he calls back to him from the kitchen.

"In here." Papyrus calls and Sans quickly makes his way to his brother's location stopping in his tracks when he finds the kitchen in shambles again. All of the cabinets and drawers were opened and everything inside them had been thrown onto the floor.

"No ones here. most of our stuff wasn't stolen, searched every room.." He said mono toned.

"W-wha.."

"It looks like they were looking for something?.. I dunno... fuck." He said shakily as Sans looks around the room again with wide eye sockets when his eye lights catch the sight of muddy foot prints that trailed over the paw prints on the tile floor and out the back door.

"I'll call the police... Doesn't look like a forced entry.." Papyrus stands there deep in thought but clearly disturbed at the fact that someone was inside their house while they were gone, doing god knows what.

"It looks like an animal got in after they left or something? Didn't you lock up before you came back to the car?..." He said looking around the room again with alert but deeply tired eye sockets. Sans looks over all the seasonings, spices, boxes, and jars thrown about on the floor long with the medium sized paw prints and blinks when he recalls the dog from a moment ago. 

"Y-yeah. I did. I-i swear i did..."


	5. Weird...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep procrastinating on posting. Nothing happenes again.

A few days have passed since the break in and Papyrus has still been on edge about it. Most of the things that had been stolen were small miscellaneous items around the house that he wouldn't have noticed until he looked for them. Oddly enough anything of high value had been vandalized in some way or broken rather than stolen save for their computers. Sans's room had been completely torn apart as if whoever broke in was solely targeting him. The carpeting had been ripped to shreds, all of the furniture had been broken, his clothes were torn up. Sans was a confused sad mess when he saw it all. He let him stay in his room while he slept on the couch until they got everything cleaned up and replaced and contacted the owner about the damage done to the house behind the break in. He swore who ever did it was going to have a bad time when he found them. 

All of the stuff he's been seeing on the news about monster hate groups attacking local monster owned businesses, threatening schools, and vandalizing homes in the monster district didn't help ease his discomfort etheir. Especially the murders and growing number of missing people who supported the monster community police still continued to do nothing about. And with Sans as mascot for monster kind, he was in the publics eye constantly with Queen Toriel, so he wouldn't be surprised if it was a targeted act.

He started to reconsider moving back into their house Underground where it was safer, though financially it wasn't possible at the moment. He had spent a shit load on this house and couldn't believe how high homes typically went for when they arrived to the surface. But to be fair he did get a good deal with how big the house was and the space around it. The only downside was that it was extremely old, and still needed a lot of repairs after the owner had it fixed it up a little. He also didn't want to be without Sans, He knew his brother could manage fine without him thanks to his job, but he didn't want to be alone. And he definitely didn't want Sans to be alone after this happened.

After calling the police he was surprised they actually came within 10 minutes of being called. Two officers showed up and Papyrus gave them what little information he had. They offered to search the area around the house only to turn up with nothing. They couldn't really do anything about it but recommend getting better locks and a security system for the house. To which he did along with a security camera. He thinks back to the old man next door, he accused the old guy of being the one that broke in when he called the police since he was the closest person around here, but didn't have any evidence against him after they questioned him. The other thing that bothered him was that the front door was opened, not lock picked, or busted in. As if someone had a key, or was let inside by someone else. He distinctly remembered locking up before they left that night and he started to wonder if it was the previous residents, he never actually bothered to change the locks once they moved in after all. But the realater had told him the house had been empty for a while due to the owner not wanting to rent it out until he got sick.

He decided to stay home from work for a while just in case to make sure Sans would be safe. Each night he'd follow the same paranoid routine of triple checking the doors and windows before they left out and watching the sevalince camera each night until he used all of his vacation days. Then would just call from the security office every couple of hours to check on him in the middle of the night to see if things were fine. Sans would tell him about NTT's latest episode of singing with a killer robot, and about the dog they saw the night of the break in. It would come within just five yards of the house and just sit there staring into which ever window Sans was looking at it through. He had checked the cameras when he got home, and sure enough the dog was there sitting a ways from the house and staring at it for a few hours. Assuming it was hungry he put food out for it one night but in the morning the bowl was still full. He added a cut up a hot dog to it the next night and some of it was gone. 

Everything fell back into its normal pace. Sans continued to leave to hang out with his new friend and would come home hours later sweaty and covered in dirty, looking worn out and strangly stressed as if he just saw something he shouldn't have... _but happy_. He'd ask him what was wrong and what he did during his time out, but Sans would just say he fell and that he was tired and wanted to rest. Which was bazaar. A day later he'd hear on the news again how someone went missing and another protest in town and Sans would run off to go see his friend.

His friend.. He neglected to bother actually asking about them and what they were like. Getting up he heads downstairs to shower before work to find his little brother in the bathroom before him again and leans against the doorway watching as Sans dabs NTT-Brand Beauty Yogurt behind his ear despite not having ears.

"Goin somewhere again?" Papyrus asks.

"Yep! My friend's house!" He puts the jar of beauty yogurt down on the sink.

"Who's this friend again?"

"She doesn't live too far from here." He says, not answering the actual question.

"She the one you keep having plans with?" Papyrus asked thoughtfully.

"Yep!" Sans smile widens as starry eyelights fill his eye sockets.

"Did she just move into one of the houses down the street'er sumthin?" He asked slowly still in deep thought. He hadn't seen any moving trucks at all.

"No, she's lived here like, _forever_."

"Really?" Papyrus blinks. "We've had a secret neighbor this whole time I never knew about?"

"Yuhuh!"

"I've never seen her."

"Oh, that's because her house is in the woods!" Papyrus's lidded sockets raise a little.

"What the hell, really? There's a house back there?" Sans nods excitedly as his smile widens more at his brothers expression. "I know that's the face I made too!" Did that mean there was another part of the neighborhood in there too? He drove down the road that went through it but never saw any turn offs that seemed to lead to any houses or buildings. It just went straight through and around the base of the mountain.

"Is that why you keep coming home covered in dirt?" He asks and stiffens a little before nodding. 

"What were you doing all the way over there?..."

"W-well it _is_ technically part of our backyard." Sans says rolling his eye lights and grabs a comb off the sink turning back to the mirror to comb his hair and Papyrus shrugs nodding, he had a point.

"You almost done in there? I needa shower."

"Five more minutes." Sans said putting down the comb when he realizes he doesn't have hair either and Papyrus turns to go sit in on the couch until he was done, he knew he was going to take much longer than that and decided watching tv would be a better use of time for the moment, but stops when the mail collecting in his room pops into his skull.

"Do you think she's the one who's mail we keep getting? What's the address on the house?" He asked as Sans started to fiddle with his clothes again and doesn't answer for a few moments. Papyrus exhales through his nose hole deciding the five minutes were up now, and walks into the bathroom shoving Sans deeper inside making him grumble about it not being five minutes yet so he could get to the shower.

"Sans, _the house address_?"

"I...haven't actually paid attention." Sans finally said embarrassed as Papyrus turns on the water waiting for it to warm up.

"What's her name?" He asks looking back at Sans to see his expression turn sheepish, his eye lights look everywhere but him.

  
_Is he serious?_

 

"Oh my god, _you don't even know?_ " Sans shakes his head.

"You've been dolling up and going to this girl's house for weeks but don't even know her name?" Papyrus chuckles and Sans blushes out of embarrassment. 

"How do you _not know_ your crushes name?" Sans sputters.

"I-i'm not-i-it's not a crush! And i-it's just never came up! She just told me to call her by her nickname, And I just wanted to show her my coolest clothes, it's nothing l-like that!" He pushes past Papyrus ignoring the smirk his brother was giving him as his blush deepens.

" _Sure it is_!" He drawls out as he takes a large step up behind him pulling him into a headlock to pinch his round cheek.

"Ugh! _Papyrus_!"

"It's gotta be if she's got you reading that dating manual again, don't think i didn't notice." Sans shoves him away groaning with an annoyed but happy smile.

"Can I come? I'd like to meet the lucky lady that caught my bro's eye sockets." Papyrus says, he shoves his hands into his hoodie pocket trailing after him and Sans quickly whips his skull around to look at him, his happy go lucky smile immediatly turning into a small nervous one.

"Oh...uhm......No you can't." He quickly walks away.

_No?_

That whips his smirk clean off his face.

  
_why no_?

Sans always invited him to come and meet any new friend he made almost immediately after he made them. Even if they were temporary ones. Papyrus trails behind him to his room as he grabs his keys and leather jacket.

"Why no?"

"Y-you just can't." Sans said a little uncomfortably. Was he hiding something? That's...not like him, sans never hid stuff from him, He starts to feel his anxiety rearing it's ugly head again.

He couldn't have that.

What if she was someone just trying to use him to get publicity through his job. He doesn't think he can bare to see his little brother crying his sockets out over someone using him as a stepping stone again.  
Or what if she was some creep that only meant harm to him?

What kind of weirdo lives in the woods far away from everything anyway?  
Sure some teens did it in Snowdin but they were run aways, Sans said she had a house.  
That wasn't normal.

What if she was some psychopath that was just waiting for the right moment to do something horrible to him?

...

He decides to play off his unease with a joke.

"Worried she'll fall for me once she hears my punny jokes?"

"As if, and no." He waves his hand dismissively in front of him as he turns heel to head out and through the house to the garage.

"I'll be back home before it gets dark don't worry!" He presses the button to open the garage door and walks down the steps and across the room to his motorcycle.

"Wait, What about her mail? You can't fit it all on there." He honestly just wanted an excuse to come, there was something he was clearly hiding that he didn't want to tell him.

"It might not be hers."Sans shrugs and stares at his brother It's quiet for a moment as they stare at one another.

"Lemme drop you off, it'll give me a chance to meet'er."

" _But you can't come_!"

" _Why not_?" He pushes again and Sans sighs.

"She just doesn't like strangers...they make her nervous.." Sans mumbles as he shrugs on his jacket then grabbing his helmet.

"She's not much of a people person." Not much of a people person? That's already enough of a red flag for him.

"I just want to make sure you get there ok, a lot of bad stuff has been happenin' and I want to make sure you'll be fine."

" _I can take care of myself_." Sans grumbles.

" _Sans..."_

 _"Fine, but stay in the car_!"

"Lemme take a shower first." Papyrus says and Sans keys are engulfed in a blue glow before disappearing from his hand and reappearing in his.

"Papyrus!"

He chuckles turning to head back into the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I head cannon that US! Sans is bad with names like UT!Papyrus is.  
> 


	6. Into The Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A whole lot of hiking and nothing happens.

" _Sans_..."

"M-maybe its this way?.." Sans turns back around and starts marching the opposite direction.

" _We just came from that way._ " Papyrus said trying to keep his tone calm but failing as his clear irritation slipped through, he was done with all of this.

* * *

They've been out here walking around for almost 3 hours now, and his feet were hurting from these damn sneakers. He was starting to doubt that there was actually a house and Sans was just throwing a jape at him for leaving his socks all over the house and all the puns he's made over the years.

After driving down the road that zigzagged through the woods, and passing a few speed limit and deer warning signs, Sans had him turn onto a small dirt road away from the one that continued around the base of Mt.Ebott. He didn't know how he had missed that before the first time he drove through but then again he wasn't looking for it. It was a little hard to see if he were honest, due to it being hidden by severely hidden by overgrowth. He doubted that it was still even open to the public with how bad of shape it looked. Shrubs, vines, and weeds twisted over it to the point where the path wasn't even visible anymore. After struggling to get his car through he managed to make his way into a parking lot that was in just as bad of shape with two small building off to the side that looked to be a very outdated toll booths from the 60's.

He questions what his brother was even doing here in the first place again and how he managed to find this place along with if his new friend was just some crazy homeless person, who quite possible from the looks of his surroundings could also be a serial killer that liked to hide in quite obvious areas that were no longer open to the public.

"Well actually I found her house through our back yard, but your car cant drive through there and No, _she isn't homeless or a serial killer,_ " Sans said almost annoyed as he gives Papyrus a small glare as he steps out of the car onto the rocky pebble covered ground, the cool air surrounding his bones and he closes the door as the fresh scent of dirt and pine leaves welcoming him papyrus follows suit looking around skeptically again.

"Her house is huge and she's had it for a long time, it's even registered as a historical landmark by the city." Papyrus 'ohs' as he looks around, that would explain why the area looked like it was possibly an old park somewhere nearby beyond the shrubbery. "She inherited it and had the area closed off from the public after."

"Ah,well now i _have_ to meet her, that's pretty impressive." Papyrus said thoughtfully, that's actually a lot more than what he was expecting, but..if she owned the area here then that meant she was most likely a human, and from the looks of the outdated buildings...an older one.

Papyrus starts to feel his anxiety slowly come back, most of the racism he's gotten was usually from older humans. He knows he really shouldn't be thinking this way at all and it was making his soul dirty and mentally slaps himself in the back of the head for it...

_If she didn't have a problem with Sans then she should be fine._

Papyrus sighs rubbing the back of his neck bones. He was getting worked up over nothing again. Just an old lady that lives in a secluded area. He can imagine her now. All old and secluded, probably has a bunch of plants everywhere like most old people that like nature do, a few cats here and there, she'd smell like the inside of a church and old perfume, she'd offer them tea and ramble about her life when she was young.

_Yeah,that sounded nice._

"...So is it just down pass those toll booths over there?"

"I told you to just stay in the car, you'll make her nervous."

"What about the bag?"

"I can carry the stuff on my own." Sans said a little annoyed.

"Nah, you aren't about to tell me that this lady owns a historical landmark house and make me wait in the car for hours while you try to flirt with her." Papyrus said throwing the large bag over his shoulder and Sans face turns irritated as he blushes and tsks staring up at his older brother.

"So it's over there?" Papyrus asks nodding in the direction of the small old building and Sans shakes his head smirking and turns to lead him in the direction of an old wooden sign covered in moss and vines. Once up close enough he saw that it appeared to be an old faded trail map with a animal life guide on a similar sign next to it, Papyrus groans cursing under his breath after reading what little he could through the moss and vines. It was a trail sign, and the trail was a 5-mile hike that led a little ways into the expansive woods, he hoped that her house wasn't at the end of it. He couldn't make out where the house was thanks to the sign being too destroyed by the elements but did see a couple of square and rectangle shapes along the wavering lines that could possibly be it.

"Still want to?" Sans said challenging his brothers determination to follow him and Papyrus's eyelights shift from the sign to his little brother, then to a very narrow path that possibly looked to be the trail. Turning towards the trail covered in overgrowth Sans huffs.

About fifteen minutes go by as they walk the trail side by side in silence but he could hardly tell the difference if they were still on it or not. The only thing that made him sure was every few minutes or so the road that curved around the base of the mountain would peek through the trees and shrubs. He was starting to regret coming along, but Sans safety was more important than not wanting to exercise. To pass the time he made a bunch of plant and tree puns to Sans annoyance and every so often asked about what she was like, which Sans would answer with little to no real information. 

He really didn't like that and raised his suspicion a little again.

They came upon some wildlife while walking, mostly ravens, a lot of other birds and squirrels, raccoons, porcupines and possums, a very strange looking moose and surprisingly Gyftrot, who was hanging out with a few other deer who told them he was on vacation from his job as a window display. About a quarter of a mile in he saw a rundown medium sized building through the trees down the hill to the left of them asking Sans if he knew what it was. He told him it was just an old storage building the park would use for it gardening equipment. They pass three more buildings that where similar but larger as they got further on the trail and Papyrus started noticing that some of the trees they were passing had weird symbols  carved into them, along with pieces of rope in them, paying more attention now he also saw that a few of the ones with symbols looked as if they were aggressively scratched or cut out by someone.

Bugs would fly into his eye sockets and nose hole damn near every time he stepped through tall grass, The bag he was carrying was getting heavier, And he left his cigarettes back at the car so he couldn't ease the tension he was feeling. Sans had told him no one came here but he couldn't shake the strong feeling of being watched and would look behind him every now and again when ever he heard twigs snap behind him.

They finally stop at a dull yellow sign covered in vines that read '1st mile' when Sans walks off the trail and down a small but very steep cliff where a creek sat at the bottom and jumps across it turning and calling for Papyrus to follow. He stared down at his brother from atop the cliff with an 'are you serious' look written all over his face before sighing tiredly and carefully making his way down but slips on the dead leaves covering the ground and falls onto his tailbone sliding down into the creek soaking his jeans and the half of his hoodie. Sans rushed to his side to help him out of the dirty water and save the bags of mail as Papyrus gagged at the waters stale and putrid smell.

_It smelt like a rotting corpse._

He almost half expected there to be one and anxiously looked around hoping he didn't find a body and praying it was just rotting vegetation. He only found a weird looking pile of old branches covered with a blanket of mold and moss with a bunch of beetles eating away at it and old moldy child size shoes. After Sans helped him up he went to grab the bags as Papyrus stood in the ankle high water looking down at it in disgust moving to get out, when hears a small childlike giggle from behind him and whips his head around to the top of the cliff to see who it was, but no one was there. His eye lights scan trees and bushes for a moment when he hears a very faint whispering and more giggles.

" _Hello_?"

"What,what's wrong?" Sans asks as he grabs the last piece of fallen mail and straightens up to look up at his brother. Papyrus continues to stare at the top of the small cliff but doesn't see anything.

"...Does this lady have any kids?"

"No, not that I know of." Sans said." I've never seen any."

"And no one comes here with their kids? Was there a park actually here or what?"

"No it's been closed off to the public for years. The park was torn down." Sans shrugged.

_That...bothered him a lot._

He looked back down at the moldy shoes in the putrid water and steps out. Every now and then he'd hear childlike voices whispering not far from behind him, but still saw nothing when he would look to see where it was coming from. It sent an uncomfortable shiver down his spine. It continued for almost 10 minutes He managed to make out the words ' _how do they make theirs move_ ' before he felt something tug gently on the soaked part of his hoodie making him jump to whip his head behind him again only to find nothing. He walked closer to Sans after that who didn't seem to hear or notice anything when he asked if he did.

He was exhausted and hoped that they were close now. He really needed a rest.

_They weren't_

Heading deep into the woods where it was clear no one was permitted

to be he started to really consider teleporting back to his car but Sans said it was only a little walk away as he led his brother further away from the cliff where the trail was. The trees were all starting to look more and more alike now and, he turned behind him he found that he's lost sight of the creek. He started to worry about his car being broken into or vandalized if someone saw it then started to think back to the last eight times it did when he went into town and grumbles at the bad memory.

Why couldn't more humans be like Chara...

He started to wounder again what this woman was like too, would she really be like chara or just strange like the old man they lived next to?

I mean who would put a house down here, there wasn't any way someone could be living out here like this, there was literally nothing but vegetation warn down buildings and a bunch of bugs. Papyrus grits his teeth when another bug tries to make a home of his eye socket.

Whoever she was, was very obviously weird if she wanted to be this secluded away from everything like this.

He wouldn't be surprised if she really were a murderer.

* * *

"Wait, no!...uhm..

"You got us lost huh?" He said monotone. He knew it was odd for the house to be so far away from the trail and other buildings.

"No! I just...Think we... went too far."

" _Dude_."

"I-I'm sorry Papy... Normally it doesn't take this long...

"Well, how long does it normally take?"he said tiredly.

"its usually, Right. Here." Sans gestures to the open space in front of him were nothing but the rest of the expansive woods.

" I could have sworn..."

"It's getting kinda late and I need to get some rest before work... Let's just head back ok? I don't want you out here by yourself."  Papyrus says and sans sighs.

"Probably just got a little too excited about getting there you bypassed it bro, don't worry. " Papyrus said casually. He was actually very paranoid and a little irritated at all the time he spent out here when he could have just been at home, not that he would have been doing anything anyways, he was at fault for his annoyance and disappointment though. He did push to come along to meet her after Sans said no.

Turning around they head back to the creek. Papyrus suggest teleporting them to his car to save trip, but Sans tells him no in an attempt to still find the hidden home. He honestly didn't want to be here a second longer after what he kept hearing and something tugging on his hoodie. Sure it could have just been heavy from being wet, or it could have gotten caught on a branch from a bush but he didn't imagine those voices. He was efficiently creeped out now and staring to believe the crazy old guy that said these woods were cursed just wanted to get back in bed. After 20 minutes of uncomfortably walking back Sans gasps loudly making Papyrus jump as he watched Sans quickly walks to the creek.

"W-what?"

Sans kneels down reaching his hand out in front if him and makes a clicking sound.

" _W-what_??" Papyrus asked a little more urgently. stopping, Sans look back at Papyrus.

"That's Salem!" he yelled in a hushed whisper as to not scare it away. Papyrus's eye lights scan ahead of him to the creek finding a small black cat with green eyes and a green collar on sitting on a rock next to the area where he fell earlier batting at a beetle. The cat turned to look at them when it heard its name making a small meow when it sees Sans and hurries off the rock to him.

"It's her cat!" He said excitedly, the cat rubs against Sans knee purring as he pets it meowing some more.

"Hi pretty kitty! I was just looking for your house, Think you can show me again?" The cat meows again before running off in the direction Sans came from and pass Papyrus

"Are you kitten me?..You asked the cat to help us?" Papyrus said monotone as Sans stands up smiling widely, eye lights burning brighter as he pushes past papyrus to follow the small cat. Sighing, he quickly follows them both not wanting to be left behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hc that US!pap is afraid of ghost like UT!papyrus is


	7. ...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus finally meets you and isn't happy.

The small cat quickly walks back rounding a large tree that Sans didn't recall passing before with a strange marking similar to the others Papyrus had noticed carved into it only differing a bit due to a star being carved above it. The cat flicks the tip of its tail contently before sprinting off back towards the tree.

 

"Thank you, Salem!" Sans calls to it and  pushes  way through the overgrowth of shrubs in front of them disappearing. A few seconds later his gloved had pops out from the leaves and gestured for Papyrus to follow. Sighing he follows suit behind his brother and makes a sound of disbelief as he stared in pure awe at what he was seeing. In the middle of an expansive, oddly circular clearing surrounded by the tall dense trees of the woods sat a large old English style mansion. Blossoming trees lined the perimeter of the woods, while the field was full of tiny bluebells, speedwells and small patches of white trilliums that rest at the thick base of tree trunks adding to the beautifully blue and purple vibrant garden full of flowers bushes closer to the house. Papyrus gawks in disbelief with how well everything was taken care of compared to the land around it.

Dead leaves crunched under their shoes as they left the bushes and made their way across the field until they reached the stone walkway lined with pink flowers that gave off a pleasant and soothing aroma as they cross the beautiful front yard.

"This whole place was here this whole time?" Papyrus looks around in astonishment as Sans bounds up the steps."Nice isn't it?" Papyrus nods speechless. He takes his time walking at a snail's pace to take everything in around him, how in the fuck this place hidden so well, It was huge! The front yard alone could easily fit 4 houses from their block in it, Papyrus turns around to take in the yard again.

Something that oddly stuck out to him though were the four large marble statues of 2 men and 2 women that kneeled around a pound, with their hands lowered into the water as if feeding the ducks that swam inside 25 meters away. What mainly caught his attention though were the bird cages that came out of heads, It was strange, but artistic and suited the garden. The other thing he noticed was that there were a lot of wind chimes that hung in trees that surrounded the house. It was another oddity but soothing rhythmless melody that combined well with the birds singing.

Everything was beautiful. From the tiny flowers that filled the yard and perfectly manicured garden closer to the home, to the elegant exterior of the home and open sky that lay above it. As he makes it to the porch his phalanges glide up the smooth handcrafted wooden railing of the staircase and looks to the large oak front door as Sans started dusting himself off and straightens his clothes.

"Sans, _what the actual fuck_." Sans turns to smile smugly at his brother.

"Still think she's some crazy homeless person?" He shakes his head as he looks up at the towering house in front of him. A beautiful house in the woods? It was like a fairy tale, he was half expecting a princess and an evil witch to pop up somewhere. While the place was amazing, something bothered him a bit... all of it seemed too nice, there was something about the aura coming from the house that made him feel some type of way but he couldn't place it.

Not good or bad, just...There.

He decided to push it aside, probably still feeling creeped out by what happened in the woods earlier. Sans rings the doorbell waiting patiently with a large smile and Papyrus looks around spotting a few lounging chairs and tea table to the far left of him, a weird looking black cat that sat atop the table staring at them, it was similar to the one from earlier only differing due to its red eyes and collar, and makes a weird face at it.

_Cats definitely didn't have red eyes. Maybe they were just brown?_

"That another one of her cats?" He asks Sans who turns to see what he was talking about and spots it.

"Yeah that's just Mae."

Papyrus hums continuing to stare at it until it decides it didn't like how it was being looked at and runs off. He started to wonder if she had security to keep people off the property,They got in without being stopped and he didn't see any fences or no trespassing signs on the way here anywhere. It was safe to assume it was private property, but if that was the case how did she keep people out then? Someone homeless was bound to be here, but he didn't see any signs like tents set up anywhere or trash aside from those kid shoes. The other thing that was strange was how she kept the area around the house so nice, there was no way an old woman could keep a huge place looking like this on her own.

"Does she live alone?" Sans looks back at Papyrus humming lightly in thought.

"No, she has a bunch of pets and stuff."

He'll take that as a yes, if no one else lived here with her the house and yard must cost a fortune to keep it looking like this. She has to be loaded.

"You trying to get her to be your sugar mama?" Papyrus jokes and Sans turns to squint at him.

"You know, lonely old women like to go for the cute ones a lot more, act your cutest."

"Can you not?"

"Do that star thing with your orbital lights you do when you get really happy." Sans groans.

"If she asks you to move in with her bring me with you." Papyrus chuckles.

" _Papy_."

"Seriously I want to live here." He jokes. He was only half serious, he hadn't even seen the inside yet and he was already sold, He could see why Sans came here so much. This place was impressive, even If it was this secluded away from the world he'd be fine with it, Hell he didn't even care if she possible lived in the middle of haunted woods. He saunter over to one of the chairs to get off his soaked feet as they wait.

8 minutes go by and no one answers, he starts to wonder if she had trouble walking or hard at hearing, maybe she was in a different part of the house. Another minute goes by and Sans rings the doorbell again and the door cracks open almost immediately as he does and Sans eye lights brighten.

"H-hello again!" Sans says excitedly and blushes. Papyrus gets up to stand with his brother.

"Oh, hey Sans." The soft voice of a _young_ woman answers from behind the door and Papyrus blinks surprised as he was expecting to hear someone much older.

"I didn't realize you planned on coming over today..." she said almost monotone.

"Mweheh! wellll, _you know_ , just thought i'd drop for a while again." Sans giggles bashfully looking down and away as the blush deepens and Papyrus quirks a brow bone.

 

_Not a crush my tailbone_.

 

 

"Sans...give me a warning next time, please." Her tone held a slight annoyance. when the door opens a little more Papyrus stiffens and anxiety starts to flood his rib cage when his eye lights catch sight of bright lavender eyes.

 

 

 

_Oh fuck..._

 

 

 

He starts internally freaking out immediately. A girl no older than Sans wearing a strappy black suspender skater skirt with a galaxy print t-shirt underneath it, arm warmers and black thigh highs with dark hair that fell down to her waist stood in the doorway. She gives Sans an unamused look and he smile brightly at her rushing to hug her tightly giggling some more.

 

 

 

_He should have known._

 

 

 

It should have been obvious with those weird symbols on the trees. Normal people didn't live hidden and so far away from everything like this.

"This is the 18th time you've invite yourself over," Sans lets go to step back and her expression softens. "I really wished you'd-" her scolding is silenced when her eyes land on Papyrus standing off to the side behind him. He feels a cold shudder run through him when her eyes lock with his.

 

 

 

_She's a fucking mage..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flowers that are mentioned in this chapter hold a very high meaning and symbolism in this chapter.  
> bluebells symbolize constancy, gratitude and everlasting love and are edible even raw.  
> speedwells have a lot of medicinal uses  
> trilliums symbolize purity and healing and were used as a birthing aid  
> mages in this story will have uncommon or unnatural eye colors.


	8. The Witches House

The two of them just stare at each other, he found himself at a lost for words. It was much more worst than what he originally thought.

 

 

_A witch._

 

 

There was a fucking witch standing here in front of him, In front of Sans, he should have teleported them away the moment he saw her but he didn't, he couldn't. He was too petrified with shock to do so, he could only stare as red flags went off in his skull to get as far away from her as possible and watches as Sans smiles at you as if she was just a normal girl. He wanted him to get away from her.

Didn't he know? Doesn't he remember how dangerous mages were for monsters to be around?

" _O-oh...Y-you..brought company...heh_ " her voice wavers as her eyebrows furrowed together looking back to Sans with a nervous smile.

"Huh?" Sans gives her a quizzical look then followed her apprehensive gaze behind him over to Papyrus whom he forgot was even there. "Oh! Oh yes, this is my brother, Papyrus!" Sans gestures over to the significantly taller skeleton next to him.

* * *

Huffing you wipe the back of your hand against your cheek smearing dust on it and smile throwing down the large heavy mallet that had been gripped tightly in your hand to the concrete floor with a thunk. You stare at the pile of white dust that collected in front of you. It's been _too_ long since you've gotten to do this, yes it required a demanding amount of your time, but it was your calm time. You had been so busy trying to keep Sans entertained and away from this room that you almost forgot that you had business to attend to down here. Sighing you wipe your hands on your skirt, then mentally kick yourself for forgetting to wear an apron to keep your clothes clean. You had been so excited to finish what you had started with this one, that you forgot to put one on. You wanted to get it over with before you got tied up with another distraction again. 

 

 

_Like Sans.._

 

 

You grumble and bit your lip unconsciously licking away some of the dust that got on it, grimacing at the taste and blow a raspberry ot get it off. You were still a little bit irritated that the little monster kept showing up uninvited, and it didn't help ease your mind knowing that he kept getting past the barrier you had set up without any problem. It was supposed to make anyone who got within 100 feet of your home detour back the way they came. Maybe it was starting to loose its effect? It was an old spell after all and you found yourself having to strengthen it a lot. Your mother had been the one that put it up in the first place and that was years ago, but it never has any issues keeping unwelcome guest away.

_Accept for Sans.._

He was a persistent little bugger, the very first time he showed up at your house, you almost attacked him. You had been feeding the birds in your garden when you saw something stumble into your peripheral vision slowly making its way over to you. You had thought it was Askorn for a split second but when you turned to greet your skeletal friend you saw it was someone much shorter, chubby, and didn't have the hole in his skull you were familiar with and quickly realized it wasn't him. He almost looked like a male version of the merchant you always bought from a bit thanks to his stout stature. You only stared in pure confusion to who this was in front of you as the pinpricksks of light in his sockets slowly grew in size until they took the shape of stars and his awe-stricken gaze turned into an excitable one and quickly introduced himself.

He called himself ' _The Magnificent Sans_ ' then went on saying something about wandering around in the woods, and something about cats, and then about how your house was the most beautiful one he has ever seen on the surface, and then it clicked.

Monsters were back on the surface again.

You remember hearing about it on the news a while back. Good for them, you were glad they managed to be free again but hoped they were prepared for the horrible things they were going to have to face in their day to day lives now. Your eyelids lowered then turned back to feeding your birds when something else clicked in your mind again making your eyes widen and whip your head around hard enough to almost give you whiplash back to the small skeleton monster that was still standing there looking up at you with a now flushed face as he mumbled something twiddling with his fingers.

 

 

_How the hell did he get in here._

 

 

You quickly backed away from him dropping the bad of bird seed in your palm and reach up to your head to pull out the metal rod that was holding your ponytail in place pointing it at him as your hair fell over your shoulder.

' _How did you get in here_ ' you demanded and quickly glanced over to the circling blossoming trees the innermost barrier that surrounded your house to find that none of the trees were damaged and the translucent lavender bubble that surrounded the land around it still intact. His smile lowered and brow bones knitted together as he stared at you confusedly then looked behind him to the permitier of trees.

' _You mean your yard? I-i just walked in_ ' he said turning back to look at you sounding as if he were worried he was about to be scolded for whatever he did. You summoned your magic gather in your palm heating up the rod before a surge of electricity soon started to spark and accumulate into a small blue ball at the tip of the rod. He started to panic a little as sweat formed on his skull from the heat of your magic, he managed to talk you down until you were calm and found that he was defiantly nothing to feel threatened by.

You blush a little out of embarrassment at the memory. You had thought he was some powerful monster Lubella sent to get back at you for purging most of her ungodly creatures again. Not long after you calmed down he gushed over home some more before turning his attention back to you, you asked him to leave and he did.

 

 

_Only to come back 2 hours later..._

 

That continued for two weeks. He'd somehow find his way back to your home after you'd strengthen the barrier, stay and explore your house after you'd ask him to leave,  _stare at you a lot,_ ask a bunch of questions about your life, bring you bones and gross food, _stare some more_ and then leave.

 

He was... _Peculiar_.

 

 

You found yourself starting to like his odd company despite your mild annoyance with him sometimes. It was honestly a little nice to have someone new to talk to other than your friend Askorn. You often found yourself staring in the mirror talking to yourself a lot when he was gone, while you did always have the best conversations with yourself it was still not as nice as talking with someone else. 

Even in your own company you sometimes didn't agree with yourself.

The clouds of dust in the air settles and you look around the room frowning a little at the mess you made.

Maybe you got a little carried away...but still, you feel accomplished. You just needed to get the dust cleaned up now, hopefully Sans wouldn't try to pop up again for a while. You doubted you could keep him away from this room forever. Anytime you're tried to keep something hidden from him he always managed to find it somehow. You didn't know if it was an immunity to your magic or if he actually knew something but decided to play dumb around you but it made you anxious. 

He would freak out if he saw this.

You come to find that the little guy was a blabbermouth when it came to keeping secrets if any of the stuff he would tell you about his friends was anything to go by. You don't want to think of what you'd have to do to him if he ever said something.

Heading over to the door and avoiding stepping in the piles of dust that collected around the room you grab the broom and dustpan to start cleaning. You're half finished when you hear the doorbell ring making you jump. You put everything down and quickly make your way upstairs to see who it was. 

* * *

You stood in the doorway looking back at his brother feeling your hairs stand on in as a cold shiver runs down your spine when your eyes meet his now empty sockets. His face was unreadable, but you had a strong feeling whatever he was thinking wasn't nice.

_Not a lot of monsters took too kindly to you. You couldn't blame them._

"He _insisted_ he'd come along this time, I know you get anxious around strangers but he's not that bad once you get pass all the puns-" Sans continues to talk as Papyrus stares you down. Slowly, dim pinpricks of light come into view and very slowly roam down your form hovering a bit as they lingering at your chest and you instantly bring your arms up to fold over it, throwing him a dower look for openly staring.

 

_You knew what he was trying to see._

 

His posture turns rigid when he looks down at the white dust covering your black skirt and socks. Something sparks in his left eye socket, but as quick as it was there it was gone. The two of you don't say anything as he stares at you with scrutinizing eyes. Anxiety starts to fizzle in your stomach and you bring your hand up to your belly in a poor attempt to calm it. Sans was asking you something but you didn't really hear what he was saying, you stopped listening. All of your focus was on his brother.

The tension in the air was thick. You really didn't like the look he was giving you right now.

You knew that look... It was the same one they would give you.

 

_Like you were dirty._

 

 

As if you weren't a person and you had disrespected them by just being alive because of what you were... for existing.

 

 

_You knew where this was going._

 

 

You slowly start to shy away from Sans back into your house and slowly start to shut the door as his piercing gaze refuses to relent.

"Papy! Don't be rude, I said say hello." Sans said grabbing your wrist pulling you closer to his side making you stumble forward and closer to Papyrus. He's quiet as he just stares at you for a few seconds.

"...Heya. Nice to finally meet you." Papyrus says not bothering to hide the obvious insincerity. 

"...U-uh..Hi..there.." You wave awkwardly. he continues to just look at the dust on your clothes and you quickly go to wipe away swallowing thickly and quickly step away back to the door. Sans blush darkens when he takes in your appearance. "You look really nice again, I like your outfit." Sans says and Papyrus grimaces giving him a look of disgust he doesn't see, but you do.

"Thank you, Sans. Y-you look...very colorful today." It was more of a statement than a compliment but he likes it anyway.

"Thank you!"

The three of you just stand there in an awkward silence. Sans looks at you expectingly with a huge smile still plastered on his face. You sigh wishing that he would have got the cue that you wanted him to leave.

"C-come on in."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a LOT of foreshadowing in this story for future chapters.


	9. ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really short chapter sorry and yeah i dont know.

You couldn't hide the obvious discomfort in your voice as you stand aside to let them in. Sans practically skips in merrily, but Papyrus steps in slowly, eye sockets not daring to leave you as he enters and turns to face you when you go to close the door. Your chest almost starts to constrict painfully and your stomach flops when you become hyper-aware of the fact that you really just invited them in. 

 

_What was wrong with you._

 

_You couldn't have them here right now, **him** here right now. _

You try to keep a neutral face but unconsciously began curing your fingers into the rim of your skirt when it starts to feel hard to breathe. You look over to Sans hoping he would sense your discomfort, only to find him giving you that same goofy smile he always has when he's here.

 

_Guess you were on your own._

 

_..._

 

_But how were you supposed to go about it?_

 

Just _say_ that you don't want to them here and to please leave _after_ inviting them in?

 

_That made sense_...

 

You look back to his brother who was giving you the death glare and it makes you feel like you just dug your own grave just for thinking that. You swallow hard, Maybe you should just bluntly say it.

A moment go by as the three of you stand there awkwardly, you've found the words but can't find the courage to voice their intrusion, you knew they were out there for hours trying to find the place, it didn't feel right to put them out so quickly.

Try making small talk, they _are_ your guest after all.

 

You walk pass Papyrus uncomfortably ignoring the judgmental look he gives you and stand just a ways in front of them swallowing the small lump in your throat.

"Uh-"

"-I like your hair! it looks really pretty like that!" Sans suddenly blurts out cutting you off. "N-not that you don't always look pretty..A-all the time I mean, _Mweheh_ ," He mumbles and starts twiddling his fingers as he looks down bashfully again.

"I-It's just today all of y-you..." His eye lights slowly roam over your form from head to toe as a blush deepens on his round cheeks. "Y-you're just... _wow_." The pinpriks of light form small hearts as the look back up to your face. Brushing part of your bangs behind your ear, you take a small breath through your nose and fold your hands in front of you.

"Thank y-"

"- _Oh and!_ " He cuts you off again as he reaches into his back pocket pulling out a yellow bone with a red bow on it. "Here! I brought this for you!" He springs forward to shove it into your hands and you fumble with it a little. "To add to your collection!" He smiles brightly as he looks up at you.

"..Thanks..." It really wasn't a collection but you didn't know what to tell him when he stumbled across that room ' _accidentally_ ' the last time he was here.

"Or you can use it for o-other stuff, Like-" you hold up your had to stop him from finishing that sentence when his brother squints at you quirking a brow bone. 

"-I get it, Sans, _thank you_."

" _Collection_?" His brother, Papyrus asks giving you another queer look.

"I-its not rea-"

"Yeah! She has this whole room full of them inside of these boxes, like i do with my special attacks! You should see it." 

You really wish Sans would stop talking. His brother hums and gives you a criticizing look out of the corners of his eye socket. You glance back at sans.

"Smells good. Were you baking?" Papyrus suddenly asks changing the subject and you look back to him go see him nodding to the dust still on your clothes. 

"A-ah..no, I was just doing some cleaning." He continues to just look at you, as if studying you then gives the foyer a slow once over and his expression softens a bit, his eyelights landing back on you when he is done.

"Sooo, this is your house?" He asks lightly and shrugs the bag off his shoulder and you look at it curiously.

"Yes."

"It's a very beautiful home you've got here. Sans tells me you own the the whole area."

"Thank you, and yeah, I do." You don't know where his sudden laid back tone came from but he seemed relaxed now.

"You should have heard him when I told him that! He didn't want to believe me, he thought you were a crazy homeless person and a serial killer." You stiffen a little and look over to Sans as he places his hands on his hips giving his brother a stink eye.

"Heh.. _no, I'm not_.. And everything belongs to me." You say a little bothered by his accusation.

"Well you can never be too careful." He shrugs again. "23677, Right?" He holds the large bag out to you and you perk up.

"Oh, Kinda, it's actually another building on the property, is..that my mail?" He nods.

"S'been coming to our house instead." He says and you frown a bit. "What's your address?" You asked hoping it wasn't the one you thought it was.

"226375." He says. 

Oh.

"Sorry about that, The people that used to live there would usually deliver it to me." You go to take the bag from him brushing your hand against his and he eyes you for a second. "Was it old man named Mr.Small, and his son?" Papyrus asks and you nod.

"He sold his house to us!" Sans says. "I didn't know you knew him, he's really nice! He even renovated it a little after he sold it to us." That was nice of him..but you wished he would have come to say goodbye before leaving.

"Yeah he was a great guy, his son was really nice too, he used to help me with my garden sometimes. Did he say why he had to sale it?"

"The son said he got real sick." Papyrus says and you frown a little.

"Oh, bummer..." You look into the large bag and can't stop your nose from wrinkling. Some of it was wet accompanied with a familiar scent of rot, hoping it wasn't what you thought it was. 

"Sorry. Fell into a creek on the way over here, some of it got wet." Papyrus says waving his hand to his damp clothes.

_That would explain my he smelt bad too_.

"I'll...um... just go and put this away, Can I get you two anything to drink?" You ask starting to head into the dinning room. You decide its best to try to put your anxiety to the side for now. So what if his brother was looking at you funny, looks were just looks, it wasn't anything you weren't used to at this point in life, and the quicker you hosted for them the quicker they can leave.

_And the quicker you can get back to work._

"Sure." Papyrus says casually. "But mind If I use yer bathroom first? Just want to clean up a little."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't reread any of this.  
> :|


	10. Listen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He slams his hand next to your head making you flinch hard screwing your eyes shut with a small gasp before you can finish your sentence. Trembling you peek your eyes open to look up at him to find him leaned down to your hight to be eye level with you as he now glares daggers at you. "You think i wouldn't notice?" Your fingers start to dig into the wood of the wall behind you as you lean further into it to try to gain space between you. "W-what?"
> 
> "Don't play stupid, witch." He spat out and you flinch again. "I don't know what kind of hex you have on my little brother but it ain't about ta work on me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm probably going to go back and add more detail into this to give better imagery,this chapter wasn't all i wanted it to be.

"Um..." You didn't want him walking around your house, if he was anything like his brother you'd be certain that he would snoop around the place and 'accidentally' stable across something he had no business seeing. "I can take care of that for you if you want?" He looks a little surprised at your offer.

"Don't really have anything I can change into do you?"

"No, there's no need.." You say and place the bag down and slowly walk over to him keeping your eyes averted from his own when you reach him. "..Um...Just..." You gently press a flat palm to hover in front of his hoodie swiping down and away from his body as you pinch your fingers together and a grey water slowly accumulates into a wobbling ball in between you. You glance up at him to see him raise his brow bones and pats down his clothes to find them completely dry and you turn to walk back to grab your mail keeping your fingers pinched so that the ball didn't disrupt. 

Picking up the bag you start to walk away then look over your shoulder to him to find him staring at you with empty sockets."I'll just go and put this away, would tea be ok?" You ask and Sans Ooo's at the mention of it.

"Can I have star milk tea again??" Sans asks as he starts to follow you, and you stop to look over to him to find bright star shaped lights in his eyes and your brows knit together.

" _Sans that takes like 30 minutes to make..."_

_"You made it last time._ " He whines.

" _That's because I had already made it for myself when you showed up..._ " You grumble he wouldn't leave you alone about what it was and what it tastes like for 8 minutes before you just let him have it, he looks at you pleadingly and you frown. Those flowers weren't easy to come by in the market and coast a fortune for just three alone, you would have no idea when the merchant who usually sold them would come by again either. 

"How about Bluebell tea? You haven't tried that before." You say heading to the kitchen. That wouldn't take long since you had a ton of them in your yard and would be able to restock them with ease.

" _What about just the milk??_ " He gives you a puppy dog look and you deadpan at him, the milk wasn't as pricey as the flowers were but they still weren't cheap and you really didn't want to go through the trouble just so he could get a sugar high. " _Milk is good for bones!_ "

"Sans..."

"Please??" He begs.

" _That's still like 15 minutes_." You'd have to pick the stems and then carefully drain them.

" _That's ok, I have time_." He smiles innocently and you sigh.

"What's star milk tea?" Papyrus asks and you turn to look back at him.

"It's just milk tea made fro-"

"Ohmygosh!ItsThisreallyyummyteamadewiththisspecialmilkskymagesuseandthesereallyprettyrareflowersthatlooklikestarsand!-"

"Woah whoa whoa, dude slow down, I didn't catch any of that," Papyrus says holding his hand up and his brother stops bouncing on his toes. He nods over to you to finish.

"...It's just tea made with very _expensive_ " you pointedly look at sans. "Rare flower called a moonflower mixed with a plant called powder weed that taste like milk, and other stuff. it also takes a lot of time to make." You say looking back at papyrus who raises his browbones over at his brother and you look back over to Sans to see him crestfallen. You squint back at him and sighing you start walking. "But I guess i can make it for you since you gave me such a lovely gift..." Sans skull shoots back up to you and smiles widely clinging himself to your arm almost making you stumble.

" _Thank you!_ "

"I'll have whatever." Papyrus adds in and follows slowly behind the two of you as the three of you make your way through the mansion. As you head towards the day room to your right and Sans is quickly at your side as he smiles and stares at you. You try to ignore it but end up glancing at him anyway making his smile widen. You hear his brother; Papyrus; slowly follow along seemingly taking his time to look around. 

* * *

"It's going to be a while, I hope you don't mind." You say as you enter the kitchen immediately going to the sink to dump the gross wobbling ball of water into it then head to the cupboards to grab the tea set and place it on the island in the middle of the large kitchen, Sans quickly makes himself comfortable at the counter as Papyrus continues to take his time looking around as if in a museum, you hear him whisper words of awe and look behind you at him as he looks around until he's next to Sans, curiously looking at the assortment of colorful bottles and jars full of powders, liquids, and dried substances and others on the counter. 

 

"Were you working on something again?" Sans asks curiously as he picks up a tiny jar no bigger than half your index finger full of shimmering yellow flowers in between his phalanges. "No, I just wanted to make room in my garden, I'm putting in new flowers." You say as you move to the sink filling the clear glass teapot with water then set it down next to it to open a drawer and pull out a measuring cup. Opening the cupboard above it you reach with both hands to grab an unmarked jar full of tiny pearl like marbles and place it down, next grabbing a jar of vanilla sticks, honey, and a fine iridescent dust. "Were you planting these ones or were you going to use them for a tea?" Sans asks lightly.

" _This just looks like flower shaped glitter from a craft store.._ " Papyrus says skeptically and you turn to look at him to find him turning the small jar in his fingers examining it. Frowning you grab the clear glass pot and move to place it down on the stove turning it on high so it would boil and cross the room to him, you decide to put your discomfort to the side for now and raise your palm up to him as he stares down at you with lidded sockets, you motion for him to give it here and he places the jar in your hand. Pulling out the small cork and pouring a tiny dime sized cluster into your palm, you close your hand into a tight fist and wait a moment. He flicks his eyelights from your hand up to your face broadly as he quirks a brow bone and you open it again as ' _glitter_ ' starts to grow in size and bloom open unfolding like origami into soft flowers, popping like popcorn filling your palm until it spilled over onto the counter and papyrus's sockets widen.

"I thought you two were _pollen_ my leg..." He whispered and sans groans as he picks one up between his digits. Sure enough, it was a buttercup he was holding and brings it up to his nose hole to smell it and a sweet aroma fills his vomer bone. "These ones were for tea." You answer Sans and gently place the rest of flower blooms on the counter with the ones that fell and have a seat to arrange the disorganized jars so you didn't grab the wrong ones and Sans smiles and takes a seat next to you.

* * *

Sans was giddy and touchy around you... A lot more than he was towards humans when monsters first came to the surface. The more he listens to his brother talk all he's been doing was shooting compliments at you and then watches as he gives your body prolongs stares when you aren't looking he found irritation starting to rise in him again.

 

_He didn't like it._

 

You had told him that you weren't baking anything despite the sickeningly sweet smell coming from the kitchen, but there was no oven on or trace of you baking either despite the smell of cake or pie or  _something sweet_ which still lead him to believe that the dust on you was what he thought it was without a doubt. Looking around your kitchen he would say that an old woman lived here from the number of old cookbooks and tacky old decorations that cluttered the place, hell most of what he's seen already gave off an old woman vibe. 

"Ya live alone?" He asks and you stop to look at him as if caught off guard by the question, your lavender eyes searching his face for a moment and it's the longest you've directly stared at him. 

"Why do you ask?"

He shrugs." It's a big place, seems lonely to be by yourself." You don't say anything and look past him for a moment before turning back to filling the teapot with some kind of white shimmering powder that turned the water a translucent barely noticeable light purple. 

"Actually, I've been wondering the same thing." Sans tilts his skull to the side and rubs his mandible, they both look at you waiting for you to answer but you openly ignore it as if you didn't hear it and he gives Sans a suspicious look. "..Do you have any kids or younger siblings?" He asks, the kids were a long stretch you looked in your early 20's and smart enough not to have any yet so it would make more sense if you had a little brother or sister. You look at him again as if almost bothered. "Only asking cuz i heard kids playin in the woods earlier and didn't see'em." You glance away with a small frown.

"O-oh... Sometimes kids wander into the woods and get a little lost." You avoid his question and it arises his suspicion more. 

"You know, _there's been people going missin around the woods_."

"... _i haven't heard_."

He doesn't press, you clearly weren't going to tell him anything and Sans was as clueless as he was about what he wanted to know. You and Sans go back to talking about something and he loses interest as he looks around the kitchen in hopes of finding signs of anything that could answer his questions. Although you invited them in you started to not hide that you clearly didn't want them here by not so subtly and almost rudely telling them that you were very busy today and needed some alone time as you prepared the tea. Yes they did intrude but you could have at least try to pretend for his brother's sake. Not wanting his annoyance to get the better of him for how you were treating Sans, he starts to only half listen as the two of you switch between conversations. Occasionally he eyed your chest to try to see your soul but of course, you made it so that he couldn't and when you caught him staring you openly glared at him. You had something to hide. 

* minutes go by, the conversation switched to something about more flowers as he watched you put the jars away wondering what you were doing with them. _Probably spells and potions undoubtedly_. "How is mascoting going?" You ask sans.

"Same as always, I'm thinking of taking a vacation for a while though, it gets tiring to travel so much all over the country at times. Asgore had a few ideas that he wanted us to work on for how to market some monster products before I do." The moment he mentioned Asgore's name, your expression brightens as you set two teacups down on the counter for himself and Sans.

" _How is Asgore?_ "

"He is alright." Sans says dismissively with a bored look and Papyrus quirks a brow. _Did you two know each other?_

"How are he and the queen doing since they opened the school?" You asked curiously and Sans can't hind the obvious annoyance on his face.

"Oh, well... _they were talking about reconnecting with one another._ " Sans said slyly making Papyrus give him a sidelong glance at his brother for lying about such a thing and you deflate." Oh..." Your voice disappointed as you turn to grab the pot and Sans smile returns. "Yeah they never shut up about it, they are terribly in love with one another again."

"That's...great.." Your smile doesn't reach your eyes and you look down to focus on the teacups, pouring the hot sparkling murky water into them. Sans smiles giddily as he closes his sockets to deeply inhale the scent when he opens them again his starry eyesight have returned. "...He was the one that got me into gardening." You say pushing the next cup over to himself, the tea wobbling inside as it does and he blinks a little surprised to see it sparkling as [little white stars shine inside a purple liquid](http://aestheticspls.us/post/128433209995/purplepink-aesthetics-are-my-life). It had a distinct _non licorice_ scent a lot like monster candy, looking up he finds you watching him as if feeling him in. Papyrus blinks again. _You two did? The ex-king hasnt mentioned you once before.  
_

_"_ I didn't add the powder weed to save some time so it tastes a bit like the fairy tea you had before, I hope its alright, I wanted to save a trip to the garden _."_ You tell Sans as he downs the cup despite it being scolding hot, Papyrus takes a small sip himself after blowing on it. The flavor was hard to place other than very sweet and he could feel a tingling sensation on his manifested tongue that spread through his bones. 

"Oh! Papyrus you have to see her garden it's amazing! Come on!" Sans says and places his empty cup on the coffee table to get up as he starts to head to out a door settled in the nook of the kitchen. "..I... Guess i can show you." You bite out as you give Sans an annoyed look and stand placing your teacup down as well. 

* * *

The three of you step out into the backyard and Papyrus stares in more awe to find a much more elegant garden full of fruit trees, vegetables, herbs, and spices along with a larger variety of flowers and trees and a large pond full of fish in the center of it. As he looked around he found more statues stood outwards towards the perimeter of the woods eerily as if guarding the back of the house with rhododendron trees in between them. He looks around mouth slightly agape highly impressed by it all as he steps off the back porch into the grass. 

_He could defiantly see Asgore's influence._

He asks you about your garden as he takes his time slowly walking to take everything in and you tell him that it's more fun and satisfying to grow your own food rather than pay money for it as you follow alongside him answering other questions he has. 

"She even makes her own chips and jams and stuff!" Sans calls over to him from a yard away as he picks a plum from a tree then rushes over to him. "See look, taste how good these are! They are better than the ones they sell at the grocery store!" He tries to shove the fruit towards his face as he stands on the tips of his toes only managing to reach some what up to his clavicle. He takes it and wipes it off on his chest and takes a bite and it defiantly was. 

"She grew it all herself," Sans said proudly. "She even makes her own honey!" Papyrus looks around the yard in amazement but his smile falters when he sees oblong plots dug in the yard and what looks like a pin in front of a shed that was full of animal carcasses and grimaces. "You hunt?" He asks when he sees deer, elk, and other animal skulls decorating the shed. You turn to look at him frowning at the question. "...no, never...I just find them sometimes and use their bones as decoration and other things.." you said and he gives you a bothered look when you turn away. As he steps closer while keeping a fair distance so the rotting smell didn't get to him, he notices some beetles eating away at the dead pelt of a deer skull.

" _what are those beetles?_ " You tell him they're flesh eating beetles that feed on dead animals usually used in taxidermy to strip bones clean of their flesh.

 

He finds it weird.

 

avoiding being near the shed any longer he takes his time walking around and admiring the rest of your garden and taking a few photos to send to Undyne when you weren't looking. once he's somewhat satisfied the urge to sit and relax while taking in the view he heads back to the porch where sans was when he finds a weird looking red and purple flower in the plots below it. "What kind of plant is this?" He asked poking at it as he leaned closer to examine it, it looked as though it were a venus fly trap going to some fancy party from the way its petals bloomed around what he guessed was a pollen bulb.

"Oh, don't get too close to that, those are-" 

"Ahgh!" A loogy of slimy nectar and pollen is spat on him and he backs up to stare down at the front of his hoodie as the blue glob full of dead flies slowly oozes down it.

"Spitting..snap dragons..." 

"...never heard of that before..."

"I crossed two plants species with magic and..she's what i got.. heh." He frowns as he wipes away some of the weird slime off his clothes only spreading it more.

"Um... Sorry. should have warned you I have some abnormal things in the yard..Do... you want to help me feed the fish?..." You ask him and he tells you no.

_No telling what other kinds of weird stuff you have around here._

He heads back onto the porch glancing down at Sans as he gently rubbed one of the hybrid plants with a finger, jumping out of the way when it spits at him, h glances back at you and you shrug heading towards the pond when suddenly trip face planting and he catches a flash of pink and white stripes.

_Oh wow_

He quickly looks down and away when he notices a small bone in front of your foot and glances down at Sans.

" _You just came over here to stare at her didn't you ya little pervert.._ " Papyrus whispered as he squinted at his little brother's wide blushing smile to which Sans promptly chooses to ignore. "oh no! are you ok?" Sans says as he quickly leaves his side to help you off the ground as if he weren't the reason you fell in the first place. "I'm fine...i always have a knack for fallen when you're around..." You joke as you take his hand and stand to dust off your clothes.

* * *

You all head into the house.

"The tea is probably cold now, i'll get you something else instead...it turns to jelly when it cools down so i don't think you'll like it. Is sweet tea ok?" 

"Lemons and mint would go perfectly with that! Do you mind?" Sans asks and you nod and he goes back to get lemons and mint leaves from the backyard leaving you with Papyrus.

The two of you stand in silence. Papyrus asks you to use your washroom so he can clean off the pollen loogy the flower spat at him and you direct him to the bathroom.

Once he's done cleaning up he immediately does some snooping and heads to a room next to the bathroom. He looks around when he has the creepy feeling of someone watching him but finds no one when he looks behind him there were only paintings in it and more flowers.

Quietly he opens one door and finds a large room with a large mirror in the middle of it on the far east wall. A bookcase with blue, green and red books, parallel to the door a chair pulled out from, a table with a vase on it to the far side threatening to fall and a white flower next to it while a yellow one sat inside of it and on the opposite side of the room and the curtains were drawn. It looked like an office. He steps inside and everything began to feel off like something wasn't right about the room, he crosses the room looking at his reflection as he passes the mirror but freezes when he doesn't see himself.

He thought it was a mirror but it looked like a window into another room on the other side of the wall. He slowly walks up to it looking inside. The room was identical save for the flowers on the table both being inside the vase and in the middle of the table, the books all being arranged differently, the curtains closed, and chair pushed in. His phalanges clank against the cool glass of the window, he feels he should leave out and goes to the next room close by quietly. Opening it his sockets widen in shock and his mandible drops open.

* * *

Eyes focused on the tray full of tea careful not to spill any of it, you slowly round the corner to head into the Day Room for all of you to have you tea so you could hurry them out quicker, but the moment you turn you yelp jumping when you almost bump into Papyrus's looming form and drop the tray. Before any of it hits the floor its encased in a blue glow and carefully placed down on the hallway shelf holding a vase of flowers with a wave of his hand. He stares down at you with lidded almost calculating eyes as you stare up at him with wide ones.

"Y-you scared me." You state with a shaky breath and your eyes flick over to the tray to find not a drop has spilled, He doesn't say anything as he stares down at you and returns his left hand to his hoodie pocket. You lower your hand from your chest swallowing and glance back up to him. "T-thank you..for that..." he stares at you quietly.

Suddenly an invisible force slams you against the wall behind you with a loud thud making the paintings and pictures on the walls clatter and shake as the frames shake. A small yelp leaves you as the air is knocked out of you and you stare at him with wide eyes as he gives you the same dower expression he did earlier, but this time it felt colder as he held his head up high, as if contemplating what to do next. His sockets still lidded but missing was the pinprick of light in his right socket as smoking whips of blue adorned his left. 

"w-what are yo-" He slams his right hand next to your head making you flinch hard screwing your eyes shut with a small gasp before you can finish your sentence. Trembling you peek your eyes open to look up at him to find him leaned down to your height to be eye level with you now glaring daggers at you.

" _You think i wouldn't notice?_ " Your fingers start to dig into the wood of the wall behind you as you lean further into it to try to gain space between you. " _W-what?_ "

"Don't play stupid, _witch_." He spat out and you flinch again. " _I don't know what kind of hex you have on my little brother but it ain't about ta work on me. that sickeningly sweet smell filling air? ya can't fool me, I know what you' did._ " He hissed and you start to look around frantically as you shake.

"i-i" he leans in closer until his face is just inches from yours. "But pal, heh..just know.." His breath fans over yours as he talks and the next moment his eye sockets are void of any light as his glare hardens and you feel something sharp press into the left side of your neck as he brings his other hand up. " _If you ever do anything to my broth-_ "

" _ **SANS!!!"**_ You scream at the top of your lungs making him flinch back a little and he blinks in confusion, the force keeping you pined to the wall is gone and he stares at your cowering form.

"Yes???" Sans appears not a second later as he ran into the hallway with a sliding stop, a wide smile on his face reaching his sockets but his starry eye lights disappear the moment he sees you cowering against the wall with Papyrus cornering you.

"Papyrus?.... _What are you doing to my human_." Sans mutters quietly and his smile tightens. Papyrus stares at him blankly then slowly leans away from you, the sharp pressure on your neck gone as he stuffs his hands that was trapping you back into his pocket.

"Nothin...just a little chat.." 

"Get out." You mutter, voice shaky as your gaze cased downward making your bangs obscure your eyes and sans turns his attention to you. "(Y...y/n)..what happen-" He quickly steps between you and Papyrus placing a gentle hand on your arm making you flinch away and your eyes shoot up to him and he softly gasps when he sees tears pricking the corners of your eyes as you fearfully glared down at him.

"Get out. both of you." 

"W-wait please, tell me what's wrong. What happened?-"

"- _Just leave, i don't want either of you here any longer_.." Your voice wavers as you weakly yell and Sans quickly turns to glare up at Papyrus.

" _What did you do!?_ "

"I didn't do anything to her." He replies annoyed, he hadn't even really touched you yet. He glares back down at you but it softens when he sees tears rolling down your round cheeks. _You were crying? What the fuck you were probably faking it._

Sans tares his eye lights away from him and starts to look around at the walls and his glare shifts to discomfort. His eye lights follow his brothers gaze and stiffens when he looks around at the pictures on the walls to find all of the eyes pointedly glaring at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea what you're all expecting to see in this story but it's going to be nothing but boring stuff like my other stories. Also this spin-off of a spin-off is going to have a spin-off. Why? Because i like to make things complicated for myself and can't turn off shitty ideas i have for stories. Please go check out my story that started this one In Her Eyes.


	11. I'm disgusting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He swallows thickly and looks back to you, your head held high as you glare up at him, your bright eyes piercing into his sockets and he feels his soul painfully stab with anxiety. 
> 
> A witch was the last person he should ever piss off, what the fuck was wrong with him? This whole place was hexed, he could be dusted within seconds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update since it hasn't been in like 2months. I lost my touch writing. So this chapter isn't that great. Nothing happens but plot holes.

You quickly push past them and head to the front of the house without another word, Sans frowns as he watches you leave then quickly grabs Papyrus by the hand pulling him along as if he were a child. Sans keeps his head forward, but he can't help but stare back with wide sockets at the portraits as they all glare at him seemingly waiting for the cue to jump out of their frame to attack him as they watch him leave and a shuddering cold runs through him. 

When they get back in the foyer you're already standing by the door, not hesitating to open it once they reach you. Sans lets go of his hand to turn to you as he steps outside, he hears him worriedly mutter something to you that he can't make out aside from an ' _i'm sorry_ ' and you muttering something back, Sans profusely starts to apologize, the next moment he is gently pushed, being guided out. Once on the porch again Sans tries to apologize severely but the door is shut in his face. He stares at it mouth agape as of he was just told that no one loved him and to go die then immediately turns to glare up at him. " _What is your problem!?_ "

"wh-"

" _You threaten her in her own house? what is wrong with you!?"_ He yells at Papyrus _._

_"She's a witch, Sans."_

"That's no reason to threaten her! This is why I didn't want you to come." Sans angrily raised his voice and Papyrus glares down at him.

"She's not safe, Fuck you have no business being around someone like  _that_." Papyrus raised his voice a little to match his as he shook his skull and Sans starry eyelights began to dim as he clenched his teeth in anger.

"Don't say that!" he yells in a hushed tone concerned with you hearing them as they still stood on your porch, but Papyrus showed no concern in weather you heard or not. "She didn't _do_ _anything_ , stop being so overprotective."

" _There was. Monsters. Dust. on her clothes and she had graves dug out in parts of her yard. Makes me a little creeped out and suspicious when you add in the fact that people have been goin missin around here and she denies knowing anything about it._ " Turning to give him an insulted dirty look Sans balks at him mouth agape. " _Are You Kidding Me Right Now??"_

"You'd know if I was kidding." Papyrus replies, throwing his hands in the air and turning away in disbelief at his brother, Sans groans as Papyrus continues. "She had a room full of urns with a lot of those missing peoples names on them, there was one with yours too, she was probably going to dust you once that spell wore off." Sans turns around to glare at his brother with empty sockets now. 

" _What is wrong with you!?_ " Sans says, disgust heavy in his voice, no longer keeping his tone down. " _She didn't put a spell on me_." 

" _What do you think that smell was?_ She probably just burned someones body before we showed up." He growled. Toriel had told him once before during the war between monsters and humans that when witches did murder someone, either for spells, sacrifices, or some other unholy thing they'd mask the scent of burning flesh with some overly sweet scent that would also entice anyone that smelt it if they didn't know what it was. " _I was c_ _onfused on how ya missed it at first._ "

"IT'S MARBLE DUST! SHE'S A SCULPTOR! _LOOK AROUND THE YARD PAPYRUS IT'S PRETTY OBVIOUS_." Sans suddenly screams at the top of his nonexistent lungs, voice full of rage making Papyrus flinch back and his brow bones knit together in anger and confusion for his brother's overly loud yelling. He's never snapped at him like that, not once.

"SHE WAS PROBABLY CLEANING HER WORKSTATION." He yelled clenching his fists before closing his sockets to pinch the bridge of his nasal bone huffing as he rests his other hand on his hip, after a long moment of calming down a bit he opens his sockets to glare at him with dim pinpricks. "Those ' _graves' that weren't even deep enough to be one,_ mind you, were for where she was going to place new statues." Papyrus stares speechlessly at sans before taking his eyes away to look at the yard.

" _that room_  was where she keeps all of her herbs and other stuff for her products. She's an herbalist too, that's the other reason why her garden was so full. Those jars are full of tea leaves and powders she was probably going to give to someone. Just because a few names where similar doesn't mean that was someones remains!  Papyrus." Sans huffs.

"They looked like ur-"

"- _I KNOW THEY DID!_ " Sans snaps again cutting him off. "That jar with my name was for me because I'm always bothering and mooching off her for star milk tea. She told me she would give me a batch of the ingredients when she had the time to make it, _I was going to pay her_." Sans hissed through clenched teeth. " _And that smell was probably candy wood. she burns it to keep flies out, they don't like the smoke_."

_Oh_.

Guilt suddenly comes crashing down on him and feels like a huge dick. "...aw fuck....sans I'm sorry" He said very quietly as he shook his skull and Sans pushes past him.

"It's too late for that now! You probably just blew my chance at having an actual decent friend aside from Alphys and Toriel who are always busy,  _So thanks!_ " Sans said out of character as his sarcastic reply shows a clear indication for his mistake.

He fucked up.

As Sans stomps down the steps and begins to walk away in anger as fast as his little legs would take him, Papyrus slowly drags his feet in guilt as he easily catches up to him.

"Dude, _I'm sorry_." he tries to back pedal.

" _I really liked her, Papyrus!_ " Sans turned to glare at his brother again, a heavy blush dusting his cheekbones making him come to a stop as more guilt swells inside him as he stared down at his chubby upset face.

_He really fucked up..._

Sans stops to fully face him. "I'm always coming here because I wanted her to get used to being around people again so she wouldn't be a shut in." His expression softens and sadness peeks it's way through. " _She needed this._ She has bad social anxiety... _You of all people know what that's like._ She's been through a lot and that's why she doesn't like people.. _That's_ why she lives secluded from everything, _she's just scared of something bad happening to her again_...That's no way to live. Humans are social creatures they shouldn't be like that..." He said sadly before looking back up at Papyrus, his anger returning.

"And you just had to tag along and do _this_ like you do with all my friends.. _."_

"I didn't-"

"You _aren't_ dad...You can't keep acting like I'm a child anymore brother, _I'm 23_ I know you're worried but _I can take care of myself_." Sans grumbles and he turns to stomp away. Slightly hurt by the truth he follows without another word, none of this went as he was expecting it to be. He wasn't expecting anything actually but defiantly not this... Thinking back on how much he would helicopter over him to keep him safe when they were younger almost to a controlling point he realizes he was still the same. Becoming a parent to his little brother wasn't something he was prepared for when their dad left.

_But sans was an adult now... He didn't need him anymore..._

As he walks he palms the back of his neck and looks back around the yard but double takes when he notices that the statues at the pound are all standing up with birds inside of the cages, unsure if they were like that before he continues to watch then as they leave. The longer he stares more discomfort rises within him, _it felt as if they can move at any moment_. He turns to look back at the house and sighs hoping he didn't just make a bigger mistake than he felt he did.

Once in the woods he finds it much harder to make his way through the shrubs as they seem to be tougher to get through. An unwelcoming and wrong air starts to make him anxious, but he couldn't tell if it were from scaring away his little brothers crush and being called out for doing so in the past or if it was from possibly being cursed after pissing off a witch and he mentally drop kicks himself for being racist. He walked slowly behind sans out of guilt and worry of him saying something else that would make him feel worst _though it was deserved_ , and contemplates weather or not he should go back now to apologize. Turning to look back behind him he sees nothing but unfamiliar trees as if they hadn't come from that way at all. _Figures_...

He steps forward and turns to look ahead of him again but stops in his tracks when he finds Sans gone. "Sans?" He looks around and starts walking faster. "Sans!" He calls to his brother again getting no response. for almost 10 minutes as he panicked walked through the seemingly thicker overgrowth, vines and branches twisting and tangling around his limbs as if they were trying to stop him from leaving the more he pushes through only to struggle. Tempted to use a blaster to clear the area around him he decides against it not wanting to accidentally hit his brother or any wide life. He doesn't know how far he was from it but  teleports away from hoping that he was near enough to the creek, but when he finds him, sans doesn't say a word to him and just blankly stares down at the rotten smelling water full of mold and those weird beetles. "Wait for me next time, I don't know where i'm going." he teleports them to the car, as they get in and he starts the car, he gives sans a glance.

Pouty with his arms crossed.

They don't talk the way back home and when they get to the house Sans goes straight to his room ignoring him when he tries to apologize again. All he can do is replay everything in his skull, how weird this all was, how weird you and that house were, that weird tea that made him feel _weird_ , your weird animal corpse collecting hobby... _That fucking rotten smell and those beetles as they ate away at that deer's flesh_ when suddenly he remembers something you said that bothered him the most. 

'Sometimes kids wander into the woods and get lost.' Those beetle he saw on that pile of mold next to those kid shoes were the same as them, _that was a fucking body_. After getting off the phone with the police about a possible body he takes a boiling hot shower.

_You fucking knew._

A few hours go by and he sits on the couch contemplating what things he can do to try to make up for it when Sans finally comes out of his room with a gym bag. "I have a photo shoot, it's only 4 hours." He mumbles as he gets ready to leave, once he's got everything he needs he grabs his helmet and deflatedly walks past him clearly still deeply upset with him. "Be safe." He tells him as he enters the garage, he hears his motorcycle startup and a moment later he's gone. 

* * *

He doesn't find your house at all, the thick shrubs of the woods have seemed to have gotten significantly thicker making it almost incapable to even get through. He manages to make it to the first building he saw with Sans and stares at its eerie structure for a while wondering why you had the park closed in the first place. " _Hello_." A mans deep voice says from somewhere a ways besides him and jumps hard glancing around to find no one.

" _Hello_." the man says again after a moment of silence, his voice stiff like a phone operator on a recorded message, too proper and almost robotic. He starts to feel uncomfortable but the man doesn't sound exactly unfriendly.

" _Hello_." The man says again in the same exact tone a third time almost as if a broken record was stuck on a bridge. "H-hello?" Papyrus curiously says as he slowly steps forward looking around and behind him to where he sounded like he was coming from.

" _Hello_." The man says again in the same tone. "Uh..heh. _hi_..where are you?" Papyrus asks and for a long time he doesn't get an answer and he raises his defenses readying himself to materialize a bone when a magpie flew down to a low branch on a tree in front of him. It looks at him in an odd way for a pregnant moment while curiously bobing, turning and tilting its head as it stares at him. He ignores it slowly stepping forward looking around for the man to still find no one and anxiety begins to build within his rib cage. The bird flaps its wings and his eyes dart back over to it as it hopes down to a lower branch making him wonder if it was used to people because of how close it was. The bird cocks its head to the side tilting it to look at him better then turning forward and opening its beak, the word _hello_ in the man's voice comes out and his eye sockets widen bewildered as he stares at it and the bird waits for him to say something. When he doesn't it repeats the word and waits again.

"It was a _ducking_ bird." Papyrus mutters as relief fills him,the magpie starts to cackle as it stares at him before letting out a series of unfriendly caws and starts flapping its wings to hover over the branch it was perched on before flying closer to him and he backs away. _No telling what kind of bird it really was since these woods had a witch living here_ , he didn't want to take chances after he found out you cross magic with organisms, especially after upsetting you. However it flies off behind him and he turns to watch it leave when his eye lights land on a dark figure away in front of him. It was a man.

 _Another skeleton monster_.

His skull round with a large gaping hole in the side of it as if he had been shot in the head and his face reflectively scrunches up at the sight as gold eye lights stared back at him, a deep frown settled on his bony lips and deep lines rested under his sockets. He was wearing what looked to be a black cape lined with white fur at the bottom that covered the entirety of his body except for his legs, leaving only black pants and dark boots to the rest of his attire. How long was he standing there behind him like that? He just looked behind him a second ago and there was no one. He didn't hear anything other than birds chirping and his own footfall as twigs and leaves snapped and crunched under his feet. They both just watch each other for what feels too long to say nothing, but when he finally finds the courage to say something to him the man walks off behind a tree disappearing behind it as if he weren't even there to begin with. He teleports to where he was looking around.

No one.

He knows he saw someone but as he calls out again he gets no response and starts to feel uncomfortable when the possibility of being stalked arises in his mind, turning around he stumbles over something and falls face first onto a sickly pale bloated mass covered in dark clothes. Water splashes and sloshes around him soaking into his clothes and he hears loud wet snaps when he tries to stop himself from fully falling into it. A putrid smell gags him making him dry heave as he quickly pushes himself up and away, his hands sinking into the cold, slimy and squishy flesh as he does. Something squirming underneath his palms and knees as his eye lights waver when he sees large bot fly maggots writhing within the spots he broke the rotting flesh, he stops himself from looking any higher than its slit neck before he teleports out of the creek he somehow ended up in and groans in disgust shaking off the soupy mush that clung to his hands as he stares down at the body gagging and coughing as the rotted smell spread, backing away until he fell on his butt staring in pure shock. 

He didn't need to look at the face to know who it was he recognized the tattoo on the mans decaying arm. His closest neighbor. He quickly pats down his pockets in search of his phone as he slowly starts to hyperventilate, anxiety swiftly begins to consume him and he fights down the oncoming panic attack building in his core before looking down to fish it out and call the police to report his body. It was soaked and wouldn't turn on, his hands start shaking as he repeatedly presses and holds the power button confused on why it was off when it hadn't been when he left the house. when he flicks his eyes back up to the body he double takes as breath stops. For the longest of moments he sits there staring in the same spot almost too petrified to move with his mouth agape.

 _He just seen it_.

He stares at the creek confused to find it empty of the corpse. He saw it, _felt and smelled it_. It was even on his- 

He pat down the front of his hoodie making a sound of shock to find it dry. He _just_ seen it theres no way he was hallucinating, there was defiantly a body there but saw no trace of it. He was almost tempted to take his soul out to cheek it and make sure he hadn't been cursed but didn't want to risk it with the way things were going right now. He starts contemplating on whether or not to just leave and go home but he's already made it this far, he doesn't know how he got to the creek but he was close now. He needed to fix this.

* * *

 

After almost an hour of what felt like walking in circles and paranoidly looking around ready to attack whenever he heard a noise he leans against a tree to huff, tired and irritated as he waves his hand in front of his face when bugs try to make a home of his nose hole and eye sockets again. Pulling out his phone to check the time he blinks when the battery is at 4%. "I just charged it before i left how is it already dead..."

He hears a small meow in front of him and looks up to see a black cat with red eyes and a red collar staring at him, the weird looking one from earlier when he first came. he stiffly sits watching it as it curiously flicked its tail before slowly strolling over to brush up against his leg meowing until he reached down to pet it. relaxing a little as his digits ruffle the soft black fur he sighs just wanting to go home. " _cat_ leave _meow_.. still gotta say fix this..." he mutters dryly to himself and the cat stares at him before flicking its tail and darting off. _Guess it doesn't like puns_. He watches it leave but its stops when its ten feet away to stare at him expectingly and he tiredly gets up, "You helping _meow-t_?..." The cat flicks its tail and he tiredly heads towards it, when he somewhat reaches it, it darts off again. Within 5 minutes his at your home but he stops in his tracks when he notices things look a little bit different. Less vibrant and more withered, the statues are still standing but looked older. Covered in vines and water stains, worn down by the elements as if they've been there for decades as did your house. A thickness hung in the air as he slowly makes his way down the walkway and he feels as if he's being watched. He gets to the front porch with the cat and quickly knocks. He doesn't know what to say to you other than sorry for being an asshole and threatening you, he just wants to fix the mess he made and leave. He starts to feel like shit again the more he reflects on how he acted. He was being so prejudice... You hadn't done anything to either of them and he acted like the bastards he dealt with whenever he went into the city. He would have felt something like a zap of static or a prick from a needle when you brushed your hand against his of you were a danger, but there was nothing, he remembers the face sans made when he called him out for it and how disappointed he looked in him, he starts to feel dirty and hoped that him coming back to apologize was enough of something to the both of you to show forgiveness. He doubts that you'd even open the door after telling them to leave. He sighs through his nasal bone and looks down at the cat. It was flicking its tail back and forth quickly as it sat staring up at the door.

The cat looks at him almost curiously before meowing and standing to paw at the door meowing louder and a few moments later it slowly creeks opens and his brow bones raise when you peek your head from behind it curiously staring down at the cat, when it immediately zips inside before you can stop it. He stands there quietly watching as you glare at it. " _Mae you trash mammal, go back outside!_ " You scold the cat and open the door fully for it to leave and finally notice him and you stare at him with wide eyes.

"Uh..hey-"

You immediately try to slam the door on him but he stops it by jamming his foot in the doorway grunting in pain when it somewhat crushes his foot. "Wait, wait! Don't go-" he grunts as he tries to push the door back open. "I need to talk to you, i came back to say sorry!"   

" _Go away. You aren't welcomed here._ " You growl out, your voice wavering a little and he hears what sounds like vines snapping and heavy stones grinding and a heavy foot fall behind him in the distance and turns his skull to look behind him to see the large statues that gathered around the pound slowly walking towards the porch and his sockets widen.

" _Please_. Just listen." He begs frantically, the foot fall growing quicker as if in a light trot and after a long moment you sigh and stop struggling to open the door all the way again. He glances behind him when he no longer hears their heavy footfall in the grass and almost braces himself on the door when he sees them. _Two were already near the porch despite being 25 yards away from it,_   _they only took slow labored steps how did they get close so quick?_   They stood still as if they had been sculpted and placed that way all along. Up close they were bigger than he thought, standing near the same height as Asgore at 8 feet. Broken off spots reviled a cage like structure hidden underneath partially obscured by vines acting as it's skeleton and birds angrily chirped and fluttered about trapped inside. He swallows thickly and looks back to you, your head held high as you glare up at him, your bright eyes piercing into his sockets and he feels his soul painfully stab with anxiety. 

_A witch was the last person he should ever piss off, what the fuck was wrong with him? This whole place was hexed, he could be dusted within seconds._

"I-i'm sorry. I came back to tell you because what i did was rotten, I was just worried about my little brother...I got scared and panicked. When he told me about you...Ya gotta understand, it's a bit alarming ta hear someone lives alone in the woods and nothing else, he's always coming home like he seen or did some shit he shouldnt'ave. _And then to find out you're a witch."_ He said and your glare grows making his anxiety come back full force. 

" _You threatened me in my own house._  After being hospitable to you despite coming here uninvited and still intruding when it was clear i didn't want you here, _snoop around_ -" His sockets widen. " _Yes, I knew.._ and did nothing to be remotely seen as threatening to you or your brother, yet still assault me." Your soft voice only raising a little despite the anger you undoubtedly and understandingly felt as you scolded him. " _You just came with prejudice mess and assumptions based off of nothing but my appearance and was immediately willing to hurt me because of it_." 

"I..." He looks down in shame no longer able to hold eye contact with you as the pure shame in himself and the filthy feeling oozes over him. "I know...I'm disgusting..." He was no different than the racist sacks of shit he had to put up with when he went to the city, sorry wasn't enough for you.

" _Tell me something_." You say and he brings his eye lights back up to your face as you stare at him almost sternly, but your glare was softer. " _What do you see when you look at me?_ " You ask and he blinks confused.

"U-uh..."

"Do I look dangerous? _Threatening?_....like a _serial killer._ " He cringes at your words for being reminded as his eye lights take in your appearance again, long dark hair, with a deep skin tone, a (b/t) build and soft features...Aside from your eyes...  _Y_ _ou looked like a normal human girl._

"I...uh.. _Well, you're pretty..heh.. Uh_.." You stare at him blankly and he looks away embarrassed. It wasn't a lie but he could see it sounding like he was trying to butter you up. 

" _Do you feel anything strange or unpleasant right now from me?_ " You quirk a brow at him and he searches your face confused. "N-no?" 

" _So do you even know what kind of witch I am?_ "

"..N-no..." He admits and looks back down in shame before glancing to your chest, he couldn't see your soul as you cross your arms and glare at him again, this time in disgust. "I don't siphon my magic from monsters or turn you guys into slaves, I get it from the moon and stars." You say and he blinks. 

" _You're an astral witch?_ "

"It should have been _obvious_." You bite out annoyed as you glare at him, gesturing to your space themed attire and he looks away embarrassed. Of course it was obvious. Too obvious he just thought you were some edgy teen at first.

"fuuuck I'm an idiot." he brings his hands up to his face to cover it in shame as he turns away from you.

"Yes, you are."

"Dammit.. Look..I'm honest to god sorry, I can't say that enough. I was paranoid about all the missin people and worried about my brother, I knew nothing about you...But.. I was just being racist towards you. There's no excuse for that at all. But please don't take it out on Sans, he really likes you and doesn't have a lot of friends..." You stare at him blankly for a long moment and he starts to feel uncomfortable. He was never good with apologies, how where you supposed to apologize for profiling someone and almost stabbing them in the neck for no reason? He can't come back from that. You scoff and he looks back up to you to see you glaring off to the side.

"Trust me it's nothing new, I've had _much_ worst..." You mutter tiredly as you rub at your neck and his sockets lower as his brow bones knit tightly together in more shame when he recalls what Sans told him.

_Of course..._

_He wasn't surprised, It happened to you guys daily as if it were a tradition for police...hell he probably just made things 10 times worst by telling the police about that child's body back at the creek. Even if you had nothing to do with it, you'd be an immediate suspect and they'd hound you relentlessly once they found out you owned the entire area._

"But Sans isn't the one that disrespected me, _you are._ "

". . ."

"How did you find my house." You ask suddenly and he looks back to you, you're squinting at him. "Uh..I was walking around for a while and then this..cat just showed me the way." You muttered angrily to yourself and let out an annoyed sigh through your nose and look past him and wave your hand dismissively, he glances behind him and stiffens when he sees the statues all aliened behind him blocking off the porch in the same fashion the Royal Guards did in prohibited areas in the underground, one by one they turn to leave heading back towards the pond.

"I wont lie...I don't _ever_ want you back here again. _But_ i'm willing to put things aside for Sans sake..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this ended so flatly. The racism in this towards reader will be because she's a witch more than anything. i need to say this now since it for some reason always manages to bother people, but reader being black shouldn't upset/stop you from reading, i get that it pulls you out of the story a bit but as i've said in another fic i wrote there are thousands of fics on here that poc read and still manage to enjoy despite descriptions of reader like hair or skin being way off from what they personally have. please don't let it stop you when it doesn't stop us. Thank you for reading!


	12. Right Back At Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Uh...are those...family?" He asked still deeply unsettled and you turn behind you to look at him board as he points to one with an old man as you pass.
> 
> "...yes.." 
> 
> "U-uh..some of them are missing..heh.." He chuckled uncomfortably as he looks at the empty portrait, you don't say anything though as you keep walking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i lie. its next chapter. (it ran to long)

Relief washes over him as he stares down at you surprised and he lets out a breath he didn't realize he was holding slumping his shoulders relaxing a little, he didn't know how tense he was until he did and unclenched his jaw and loosens the anxious death grip he had on his phone within his pocket. As the adrenaline wares off a wave of fatigue replaces it and he feels the need to sit down and rest, all this anxiety was going to put him in the grave early."Thank you-"

"that doesn't mean i forgive your actions just yet." You say sternly making him cringe in guilt more.

"...I just want to make it up." He says and you sigh through your nose as you quietly stare at him for a silent minute, he peers behind him over to the pound to find all of the statues that definitely would have _rocked_ his shit back kneeling at it as if they were there all along. he looks past them to the perimeter of your yard at the hedges not looking forward to go back into the woods after what he saw while there. "But... _I'm_ not one to hold grudges for too long...how long were you walking around the woods before you found my house?" you ask him softly and he turns back to look at you, a wiry look on your face. 

"bought an hour and a half i think..my phone died, i don't know." he says tiredly and you look him up and down as if knowingly before letting out a sigh as you glanced inside your home seemingly thinking something over in your head. As mercy would have it, in the next moment you say something he certainly didn't see coming. "..... _would you like to come in and rest for a while? You must be tired..._ " You ask him lightly and he's a little taken aback, after how he's acted towards you he still receives kindness in a strange twist of fate. " _Yes please. I am._ " He says as the real exhaust sets in, and you silently give a small nod and turn to retreat into your house.

 _Your name. What was your name again?_   it suddenly occurred to him that you've never told him, Sans didn't ever remember, he said he always called you by your nick name. _What was your nick name?_

 _"U-Uh.."_ you turn to glance back at him curiously when he stutters trying to remember. _it was on all that mail, what was the name on the mail again.. why was it so hard to remember suddenly?_   After a few seconds tic by, he says a name similar but not very close to yours questioningly for you to correct him if he was wrong as he looked at you with dim sockets. " _(y/n)_ " you correct him as you turn around to fully face him again.

_(y/n) huh?..._

_"...(y/n)..Thank you, again i'm sorry i-i.."_ he doesn't look at you as he talks, the guilt slowly making its way back up to the surface. _"ya'know..."_ Gesturing off to nothing he silently brings up his actions again. " _we weren't brought up like that..."_ he sighs disappointed with himself and is quiet. "...I haven't been much of myself since we left the underground, uh _but-that's not an excuse for how i acted still."_ He quickly adds in worry of sounding like he was trying to excuse it. _"i just...want you to know that **that's** not me or who i am and how deeply sorry i am still."  _ he finishes and you stare at him for a pregnant moment _._

 _".._...Being around humans does that sometimes... I'm certain you've had your fair share of prejudices since you've moved here.. _."_ you say and he nods sad, yet admittedly. " Just don't jump to conclusions about people, _please_?" You ask as if speaking for more than just yourself and he nods again. The tension in the air suddenly leaves and the bleak washed out color of everything slowly started to return back to its previous vibrant color when you give him a _very_ subtle smile.

" _Welcome to the surface_." you say softly with lidded eyes, your voice came out low and smooth and a small blush dusts his cheekbones. He doesn't know why he was blushing, there was just something there in the way you said it that made him feel... _happy._  You were probably the fourth person that's actually welcomed him here genuinely since monsters left the underground. "Come in, you look ready to collapse." You said turning and wave for him to follow you, the door closes on its own once hes inside making him glance behind him to find the cat with a green collar sitting next to it watching him. "...um....do you want a small tour?" you ask him and he turns to look back at you as you stood in the middle of the foyer, it looked more welcoming and brighter, the walls were a very light peach softly illuminated by the glow of white and blue light shining down from the stained glass sky light from above. You didn't look as uncomfortable as you had the first time. "sure." He actually was dying to see more of your home and with the offer on the table he wasn't going to turn it down. "Just to ease your mind a little prove there's _nothing_ for you to be suspicious about." You say not hiding the fact that you were still peeved with him despite accepting his apology eve though he had already insisted that he didn't feel that way anymore.

He was suspicious you were doing it to guilt trip him but before the thought fully processed you told him it wasn't everyday that he would get a chance to tour a 100 year old house, but it only further prove that he was a piece of shit for how he acted when it got thrown back in his face for a second time today. The room full of bones sans mentioned was a in better phrase a fucking miniature museum with animal skeletons in it. Things like small bugs to birds and porcupines to larger ones like wolves, cougars, bears and even a moose hid behind glass display cases and a few mounted ones fixed to the walls he stares astonished.

"My aunt and uncle were zoologists that often collected animal remains and sold completed pieces to museums in need of a display and occasionally donated smaller ones to schools." he hums as he slowly walks through out the large room examining the in complete ones that sat on counters behind display glass.

 _it made a lot more sense why you had all those deer skulls in your backyard now_.

You showed him a few other rooms near it, a study, a lounging room, the living and dinning room that you two had already passed through on the way to it, _a fucking library,_ an arcade room _Sans was probably in a lot_ , and a ball room before taking him to some of the smaller rooms that doubled as bedrooms. You only showed him 9 rooms in a quarter of the lower level of the first level of the house, even the broom closet _for some reason_ but even that alone held high elegance in it. He was even surprised to see how much monster architect was incorporated into the structure of your home, a lot of the rooms were puzzles that had been disabled. plaques that hung in and outside of them confirmed that, but he couldn't tell what type of puzzle the rooms had since the words on them where written in _Theban_.

Everything in here was expensive and a large percent of it was vintage, not to the same level as the castle in the capital but much higher quality than any other places hes been to while on the surface and it made him feel as if he were living in poverty and wanted to live here even more now. "I'll be your servant for forever to make it up to you if you let me live here." He said and you half chuckle a little _, he was serious._

 _"I have all the help i need, thank you."_ You say as you lead him to the next room, before you enter though you wrap on the door frame with the knuckle of you're index finger very lightly before opening it, you've actually been doing it with every room the two of you entered that had a door. it was always a consistent three but never in the same beat, a pause would be placed between it or it would be rapid, a few of the rooms you did it to you didn't open and he wondered if there was someone inside that didn't want to be disturbed. He hadn't heard anyone inside after you did knock and you didn't even bother to wait for a response before you walked off.

"Was someone in there?" he asked as you pass the next door and go across the hall.

".....No, its just for good luck." You joke but say nothing more and he looks back at it. There hasn't been sight or sound of anyone other than the two of you and he wonders if they're antisocial like you were. 

* * *

Once the tour was done, you lead him into the Day Room and he takes a seat on one of the Victorian style couch love that sat off to the side in front of the tile like wall window that gave him a beautiful view of the other side of the front yard with a heavy sigh as he sunk into the soft elegant cushions to relax, happy to get off his feet finally. The 'small' tour was a hell of a lot more than he thought it would be, an hour passed. "Are you hungry, would you like something to drink?" You asked him kindly.

"uh, tea please, anything is fine, Thank you." he says and you smile with a small nod and turn to head down separate hall away from the kitchen, the one that lead him to the pantry room he first snooped, he looks around the day room again as he slides his arms behind the back of the couch, his phalanges taping against the polished wood of the head rest. It looked like a room were old women would wear suits and big hats while eating finger sandwiches and gossiped. The rooms white walls  brightly bathed with sunlight that poured in, as he looked out the window to the flowery garden. He was closer to the statue pound and could get a better look at all of them up close. How did cold hard stone to move so animated...hesitantly looked at the portraits as he sits alone in the spacious room when he reminds himself that this is a _witch's house_ everything had felt so... _normal_ during the tour that he practically forgot. They were back to normal but still gave him a unsettling vibe and he quickly gets up to follow you and clears his throat making you jump from his sudden appearance. "..So how do you know Asgore?" he asks lightly as he eyes the pictures on the walls as you turn to look at him almost startled to see him behind you. "...We exchange a lot of tea recipes often." you say after a pregnant moment as you turn to look strait ahead again.

"when'd you two meet?"

".......a long time ago..." you say flatly. It felt as though you left out a lot information but he wasn't going to push. when he glances back at the walls a few were no longer in their frames as though they decided to take a break and walk out making the unsettling feeling grow into anxiousness. "U-uh...so those all family?" He stutters as he passes a very dated one of a man with a long scruffy looking beard that looked to be taken during the 1920's and you turn behind you to look at him board as he points to it ."...yes.."

"U-uh..some of them are missing..heh.." He chuckled uncomfortably as he looks another empty portrait, you don't say anything though as you keep walking. He was going to make a joke but stuff his hands into his pockets hunching his shoulders to bury his skull into his hoodie as discomfort grips him and speeds up to be at your side and stay closer to you. As he passes another portrait and a shelf with a bronze bust on it, he hears someone whisper something beside him in a deep voice making him jump but doesn't want to turn to see who it came from. As the two of you round the corner at the end of the hall that led to another, he feels a horrible shiver run up his back and glances behind him to find the bust staring at him . 

He doesn't look at anything with a face on it after that. 

As you enter the hall, he gives everything a quick once over still worried about what he may see. Three doors on the left and six windows that made up most of the wall on the left, it reminded him of the judgment hall in the Queen's castle a bit. The hall actually had a view of the backyard on the other side of them and he looks around the yard confused as the hall seemingly circles the entirety of the backyard in the shape of a hexagon. You stop to stare outside for a moment to let him take in the view. "...you're probably wondering 'how did i miss this' or something, right? In short _the house changes as I need it_...short cuts." you say glancing up at him.

_This place was definitely hexed...._

"...so all those statues are guards?" He said as he looked over the statues surrounding the backyard, these ones only differing by their heads being lanterns. _none of your statues had actual heads, they just had objects in place of them._ You giggle making him look down at you. "What no, Those are just lanterns." He looks back at the yard to stare at them in shock, you crafted all of that just to have a fancy lantern? Must have a lot of free time... He suddenly remembers what Asgore said about having distracting hobbies and wondered if you how much baggage you actually had. "The ones in the front yard are just my outdoor bird cages, they move when they're full."

"Uh... S-so the bird ones..Were they...about to uh..."

"Undoubtedly. Yes." You answer lightly without hearing the rest of is sentence and he swallows thickly. " _You know how over protective pets can be._ " Clearing his nonexistent throat when it feels hard to breath, he looks across the yard to the other hall  and double takes when he sees a tall black mass in the shape of a tall man slowly pacing down it through the translucent window on the other side. His head seemingly rapidly shaking and twitching as i does and he feels his soul cringe with anxiety. "U-uh...so _do_ you live here alone?..." For a long moment you don't say anything and he starts to feel worried. "....C'mon I'll show you where all of that 'monsters dust' on me came from after I show you where I baked all those missing people." You nod towards the end of the hall with a smile and walk away ignoring his question, you had a dark sense of humor. when the two of you enter the pantry room you go to grab three of the ugly jars and open a drawer under the shelves on the wall. "what kind of tea would you like?" you ask as you pull out a small bag full of dried leaves and a few white strings.

"Golden Flower Tea if you have it."

" _Good choice_." you say and put the rest of the jars back once you grabbed what you needed out of them the two of you head back to the kitchen and you set up the tea pot placing it on the stove once it was full of water and place two cups down on the counter before having him follow you outside.

"what are we doing out here?" he asked you. _"to get your tea."_ You say holding up the dried leaves and he stares at you confusedly as you make a B-line for the pond, when you both reach it he sees tiny fantail goldfish swimming about in it. You open the bag and grab a handful of the leaves and toss them into the water, the fish scatter about to pluck them from the waters surface quickly darting to get more. "which one looks the best?" You ask him. _He didn't want to eat a goldfish..._

_"Uh...I'll just grab a peach.."_ he said throwing a thumb over his shoulder to the fruit tree and you hum squatting down to hover one of the strings over the water above a gold and peach colored one making his shoulder slump, a second later a fish snatches the end up and you pull it out of the water, it wiggles a little before it stills. you repeat the process until you have six all together and head into the house he stays quiet not wanting to be rude.

_welp, pet fish were going to be added onto the list of gross things he ate out of politeness._

The tea pot whistles and you set the fish down on the table and he gives you an almost scrutinizing look for just leaving them on the table like that, they should really go in water, he peers over to them and he double takes when he sees they've turn into...paper? You fill the cups with hot water and place the one he picked into the cup then pass it to him, the roasted sweet hey like aroma of it wafting up his sockets widen when he sees the fish calmly swimming inside as the water bled into a golden color.[ _they were tea bags._ ](http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/gold-fish-tea-bag-charm-villa-fb.jpg)

"Would you like honey and cream?" you ask him softly.

"That is so fuckin cool."he whispered to himself.

"glad you think so, a lot of people get disturbed by it, but i thought it was cute, you don't have to dip them repeatedly either. they'll just swim around until its however strong you want it." he brings the cup up to his teeth eyeing the little fish as it winks at him and takes a small sip, and almost smiles at the taste, it was golden flower tea infused with peach. He was half expecting it to taste like gross pond water but it was just freshly made tea.

"How'd you make them?" He knows the answer was going to include magic but he hoped you didn't use real fish. You place the remaining five in a small white box and give him a soft smile before moving towards the fridge, opening a drawer and pulling out sheets of thin paper and a pair of scissors coming back to the counter you place them down and start folding one of the sheets. " _Y_ _ou use origami?_ " he said in awe as you finish it, smirking at his reaction while cutting a small hole into the tip of the head and blow air into it and hold it out to him to examine it. "wait so how'd you ged'em to move?" you gesture for him to give it back and reach under the counter of the island grabbing a small container full of orange pellets and open it placing one into the opening you make then go to fill a clear bowl full of water, coming back you place the it on the counter and hover the paper fish over the water slowly lowering it into it, he watches as the small pellet bursts with color filling the whole fishes body and it starts to energetically tread water in your hand until you let it go and it starts to swim around. " _tada_ " you wave with jazz hands shaking water on the counter. He still had questions though, were the pellets eggs? and was the water they swam in all tea too? The look on his face must have given away what he was thinking because you start to tell him how you feed them different ingredient to make particular flavors and that the pellets were just to give them color. "The pond water is just pond water, i wouldn't drink it. i mean i put a filtration system in it so it would stay clean but if you did it's like leaving a glass of water outside for weeks and then drinking it."

As the sun begins to set and the kitchen floods with the yellow glow of sunlight, the two of you sit and idly talk after you've grabbed him a pastry to snack on. you tell him more about the types of teas you make, and even show him how to fold an origami fish. He tries to do the same thing you did but all the paper fish did was float on its side atop the water while the other one swam low to the bottom of the bowl. You tell him that you incorporated your magic a lot into things and a few other things you did with your magic giving him small examples like multiplying objects and making things disappear. he wasn't surprised after what little he's seen while here today. The more you talk you start to relax a bit more and contributing to the conversation instead of just answering questions he had about your house and the area, avoiding things that you obviously wanted to keep privet. He actually had a lot of things in common with you and he found himself feeling like he was speaking to Asgore. _M_ _ainly because you talked like an old woman when you talked, but only a bit._

You probably liked puns more than he did because right off the bat when he made a few, you hit him with a skele _ton_ more that he wasn't expecting. next thing he knew the two of you are going back and fourth with shitty jokes. Halfway through the conversation and the two of you are both simpering as he tries to keep up with your puns before you're both doubling over with laughter. As the laughter dies down he eyes you, smile still in place and hurting his cheekbones. _You had a really cute giggle_ His eye lights lower to your lips as you wipe away a tear. _A_ _nd your smile was nice._

He talked to you about work, some culture shocks he had upon arriving, a little about the countries politics and you explained them a bit to him. He spoke of his friends and how they were adjusting a hell of a lot better than he was, vented a little about crap he's had to deal with before apologizing to you again for how he acted. You just softly smiled before telling him _everything's alright._ it made him feel just _happy,_ he hasn't been able to connect with humans too well, he knows it was just his anxiety stopping or ruining him at most times. He's made friendships but he never bothered maintaining them. it was like being in a different country and trying your hardest to adjust but felt like you just didn't belong there, but suddenly someone from your home land comes and you feel relaxed and ok. Talking with you felt like a nostalgia trip, you knew about monster things and culture, traditions. He didn't have to explain anything or worry about you looking at him funny for it.

Why would you? you were a witch, your world wasn't much different from monsters from what little he knew. but then again mages weren't trapped underground like they were, he doesnt know exactly what happened after the war but there wasn't too many of you left now a days... Human history books had little to no information about what happened and what was written was only bigoted beliefs (he hypocritically believed as well) the same way it had been for monsters. His eyelights trace over your form as you smile to grab him another snack from the pantry.

_a human with magic._

you were as much of an oddity to monsters as they were to humans.

In a weird way, speaking to you made him feel as though he were right back at home in the underground. Your domineer was so warm and calm you held so much knowledge like an old soul. As you turn to bring him another treat he thanks you as you give him a gentle smile that he dared to call _motherly_. You say something he didn't catch, too busy focusing on the small glint of light reflecting off the glitter gloss on your plump lips, as you take your seat you rest your cheek against your palm and look at him through your eyelashes with lidded eyes, their bright enchanting lavender color catching the suns rays _too_ perfectly and he feels his cheekbones heat up as he stares back at you. Your ebony skin radiating with a soft glow of gold. _"Papyrus?"_ you ask him softly as your smile falters slightly. Your voice sent a pleasant shiver up his spine making a warmth flutter under his rib cage from the way you said his name so curiously. "Hey, you alright? is something the matter?" you ask him and as you flick your eyes between him and the food in his hand. He's just been holding it in front of his agape mouth this entire time and he blinks, shaking himself out of it as he clears his none existent throat "uh..nothin.." he says as his blush deepens and he quickly stuffs a bite into his mouth.

_Now he understands why Sans has a crush._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wish I could write the under swap gang. The only two I can write is undyne and asgore. forgot to say but characters and references to momodora:rutl wont be put in until later chapters. hint (its in the title) if this chapter felt kinda.. idk empty to detail or just a bit off from the other ones its because i didn't want the chapter to be too long. reader is the kind of artist that just makes that weird things for the hell of making it.  
> follow me on tumblr @Sardniccs-blog for shit post and more trash, leave a comment of what you thought of this chapter, or dont. its whatever.


	13. An Old Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They both stare at their reflection and his eye lights shrink at the sight of he and his brothers appearance. In the mirror was them but...
> 
> They looked feral...
> 
> His eye lights roam over his reflections dirty, stained and slightly tattered clothes that he clearly was no longer able to fit as his hoodie left most of his spine and the top of his hip bones exposed. papyrus' brow bones knit together as he looks down at his body to find them clean, rip free and glances over to sans to find them normal as well. He turns his eye lights back to the mirror to look at his reflection again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> reading this story over im starting to remember why i trashed it the first time. writing slow burns aren't my thing but i just had to try something new.... I didn't try this chapter im sorry, this was the best i could do.

"kind of zoned out there for a moment huh?" You chuckle and he almost chokes as he swallows the mouth full making him cough.

"uh...S-so what... _what other kinds of things can you do with your magic?_..." you seemed like a jack of all trades. your brows raised seemingly surprised that he asked.

"Ah, you know parlor tricks and such, things you learn in kindergarten like basic spells, telekinesis, shapeshifting things, healing,-"  _That was kindergarten for you!?_ "since my magic source is from our plant's solar system so i can only do so much with elements, like my hydrokinesis works the same way it would for any monster that has it, but the strength varies depending on how close the moon is to the earth. But as i got older i started learning dark magic like alchemy, hexes, and some _voodoo_." You say as you glance up at him to notice the uncomfortable look on his face he probably had. "I don't use _that_ kind of magic though, don't worry." you say waving your hands defensively in front of you. "I'm not cruel... It's just my great grandfather was a shaman."

"Have you ever cursed anyone?" he asks setting down the sweet pastry when he recalls what his neighbor told him about the woods being cursed, hell it wasn't a far stretch.

"I'm not petty like most mages are known to be."

"ya'know everyone says these woods are cursed. That your doin?"

"......no, people tend to hallucinate when they're scared and lost...." It sounded like a half lie. There looked as if you wanted to say something else as worry starts to set on your features. he doesn't push, he's dealt with anxiety enough to understand having someone interrogate you on things you clearly didn't want to talk about only ever made things worst and he learned his lesson the first time. You seem to have been doing alright so far, you weren't stuttering, and didn't look anywhere near as uncomfortable as you did when he first met you.getting up from your seat, a peculiar look comes to your features".. _. i want to show you something._ "

leading him out a doorway to the right of the kitchen that lead to a spiraling staircase that looked to go into a lower level of the house, the walls grew darker the deeper you two went before hitting a staircase that just went straight down into a void like darkness, a small draft of cold air fans over his bones as he followed you into what must have been a cellar. As he reached the bottom of the stairs he almost hesitates as he peered around, it was pitch black, but it wasn't why he stopped, he didn't have trouble seeing since most places in the underground were about as dark. what made him stop was the large amount of dust that covered the floor. To a far corner, there was a table full of sharp looking tools, hammers, and ropes hung next to it. a stale scent filled the air as if he were inside a hospital or lab, and he could see the outline of something in the middle of the room covered in a tarp, you slowly walk towards it before stopping right before you can reach and just stand in front of it quietly for a long moment, he starts feeling uneasy again the longer you stay silent.

 _"...Hey...You won't tell anyone, right?..."_ your voice was low as the aura in the room suddenly shifts into a one almost threatening and it suddenly feels hard to breathe. "....tell anyone what?" _  
_

_"What I'm about to show you, just promise to keep a secret?..."_ it sounded more like as though it were a warning rather than a question and his discomfort grows, he hated making promises. "I'll keep quiet." he says. _As long as it wasn't something sinister._

He sees the head of your silhouette peer over your shoulder to look at him with lidded eyes and he stiffens when your glowing purple irises focus on him making a shiver run down his back.

You then say a word in a language he didn't recognize and suddenly the room is illuminated by a bright light overhead and he looks up to see what like two large spears of bluish white light slowly swirling around in a circle against the high ceiling before breaking apart into small orbs, like molecules multiplying as they spread out across the ceiling giving it the appearance of the cavern walls in waterfall and his brow bones raise. He looks back down so scope the room, even though Sans explained to him what the dust was and came from, it looked like the scene of a crime from the way it coated the floor. equipment and tools were scattered around the large room. You pull the tarp off the thing and his socket widen in awe when they land on a statue of a goat monster with short curled horns kneeled in the middle of a bed of small flowers with open arms as if tending to them. it looked like a revamped version of the old crumbling statue in waterfall. _"You made this?"_

"Do you like it?" you ask him and he glances over to you to find your face doubtful of your own work. " _you really made this?"_ he repeats in utter shock and almost disbelief as he approached it, if he hadn't seen some of the other things you've made he would call you a terrible liar. "it took me a few years, i hope it looks good."

"are ya kiddin me? _this is professional grade._ " he said with pure reverence, he doesn't know how in the fuck you did but you carved cold hard stone to look like flowing robes as it clung to his body. stepping closer and reaching out, his digits gliding roughly over the unbuffed part of the surface creating a bone scraping against stone sound. "you make all of them down here?" he asked referring to the ones outside.

"yes."

"How'd ya get the others into the yard?" he asks _they had to weighed a ton._ You gesture for him to move away as you step up to it and press your palm against its cheek. leaning forward you press your forehead against its own and mutter something to it before stepping away. he waits for something to happen for a moment and when nothing does he glances over to you to see you staring up at the ceiling and follows your gaze to see two of the tiny orbs of light gently falling down from it like feathers as they danced about with one another just in time before they vanished into the statues back. Suddenly it starts rumbling and a bright white light emits from its eyes as it opens them. It begins to quake and he hears a cracking sound as pebbles break away from its body and starts to fall. It's body begins to stiffly sift and it stands from its suspended form to a towering height, it looks around the room slowly a bit before its eyes land on you and it straitens up as it stared down at you.

" _Would you like to go outside?_ " you ask it and it looks back down at its hands, clenching and unclenching them and looking down at its body before trying to remover its legs from the stone that has yet to be carved into feet. it stops to rub its stony hands against the unbuffed parts of its chest and face before shaking its head no. _It knew it was unfinished, how in the fuck did you manage to give it a sentient mind!?_

Papyrus looks back up to the ceiling to were the glowing orbs where. _What in the hell were those things made out of!?_ he hears the stone shift and looks back at it to see it squatting back down to sit in its original carved state before slowly closing its eyes and becoming stiff and lifeless. the orbs of light slowly rise from atop the statues head to hover above it before lifting back up to the ceiling.

_"what is that?"_

"Imitation souls. they're made from my magic and determination, they just give inanimate things a longer lasting _awaken_ _spell_ with a bit of personality so they don't all have the same attitude." You said nonchalantly and his eye lights vanish. "it gets a little annoying to have to keep redoing it. You _wouldn't believe_ how many times I've lost things because they decided to take a walk in nature right before the magic wore off." you chuckle to yourself. "its worst when they all want to do the same thing...."

_You made a soul and gave it enough determination to persist without a body **just** to hex your statues and stuff? Undyne has been studying the thesis of that alone for years before even attempting to do so with the determination extractor and it ended badly. You created not only life itself but an actual **_soul_** with just your magic.  
_

"I made this as a gift to put at the school as a memorial...keep it between us ok?" you ask him softly as you turn to him with a wry smile. ".....sure thing..." he made a mental note to **_never_** get on your bad side.

_**You were a hell of a lot stronger than he thought.** _

* * *

As the two of you head back upstairs the kitchen its somewhat dark. You look out the window and frown as you rub the back of your neck. "It's getting late, you should get home right away the woods aren't safe at night." you say. 

"Yeah. I have work in'a while anyways." He sighs a little tiredly, he stayed longer than he was intending, time sure does fly when you're enjoying your company with someone. You grab the last of his food and wrap it up for him and had him the small white box full of tea fish for him to take home and the two of you head to the front of your house. opening the door for him you let him outside ."...uh... hate to ask but think you can show me a quick way out? Don't wanna get lost." he could teleport once he reached the creek and knew where he was but he didn't want to walk through a haunted forest at night. _he also just wanted an excuse to talk with you more._

"oh.." Your face shifts into worry before turning contemplative and you nod. "sure..um...just let me grab something for my arms." you tell him and head back into the house, he nods as you disappear behind the door and turns to look around the yard taking in the view again with a small sigh the smell of roses and fresh pine filling his nose hole as he looks up to the darkening sky, he wanted to come back but only when you wanted to have company, it was nice here...you were nice...and even though you had the whole place surged with your magic, it only seemed to be unsafe depending on how you felt. He looks over to the status at the pond.

_If birds made those move they didn't need those imitation souls... so what were you doing with them? you clearly didn't need them to hex smaller objects and if it only took two of those orbs to bring that statue to life and why did you make so many?_

When you come back out you're wearing a navy blue cape like poncho that fell down to your hips with the hood pulled part way over your head and a had worried look on your face."U-um i forgot to ask Sans but... _have you seen a black and white dog around here?"_ you ask him almost nervously as you turn to lock the door. "I saw one on the road a week ago," _they almost hit it actually..."_ It yours?" 

"d-did it have one green eye?" you stutter out. "sure did. its been coming to our house regularly actually, thought it was a stray and put food out for it." he says heading down the stairs and you give him a horrified look making him double take at you. "what, is something wrong with it? its only been eating kibble.." You slowly shake your head as you pat down your sides and look down at yourself before digging your hand into a pocket within the poncho and pull out a wand pointing at your empty palm, in the blink of an eye a brown dog collar materializes into existence. "um... if you see him can you put this on him? i dont like him in the neighborhood too much. I'm worried he'll get hit by a car." you say handing it to him and he stiffens as he nods looking over, it was a normal collar. He stuffs it into his shorts pocket and follows behind as you both quickly cross the yard. you seemed to be in a rush as you took long strides. Approaching the brush of the hedges a translucent pinkish wall appears in front of you and starts to grow opaque each step you take closer to it. it glosses over and his eyelights follow the shines wave as it glides up and overhead and he notices a giant dome-like bubble surrounding the entirety of the yard.

_That wasn't there before._

you simply push through it as if it were a cobweb in front of you as you step through the hedge and he passes through too. "what was that?"

"u-uh..just a barrier to keep my house hidden, It just turns people around a bit if they get somewhat _unless they have a guide_." you say with a sorrowful expression as you give him a wry smile.

_that's why it took him so long._

As he walks along side you, he glances down at you, Today was irrefutably more than he would have ever imagined. he met a _mage_ , a good one too at that, and he regrettably was an asshole to you right off the bat, nearly ruined any chance sans had with you, almost got killed by some birds controlling mechanized statues, and actually apologized for his behavior for once. hanging out with you was the most fun he's had in a long time even though you two didn't do anything. you were only his acquaintance but he felt as though you two had been friend's for years and wanted to get to know you better. more importantly he wanted Sans to be back to his chipper self. "....hey, so...are you seein anyone?..." Your face scrunches up and you squint up at him as if irritated that he asked. " _why?"_ it came out annoyed.

"..jus wonderin'..." he says and the two of you fall back into silence. he wanted sans to have a chance with you, you were a very kind person and nice he wouldn't mind you dating his brother after getting to know you a bit. _the two of you would look cute together._ Recalling what sans told him about you being a shut in and being scared of people he frowns. it was a shame, you were a nice person you'd be able to make a lot of friends. "...ya'know if yer lonely i can always drop by...get more acquainted " he said glancing back down to you and you whip your head around to look at him with a scandalized stare as your mouth drops open, a heavy blush dusting your cheeks as you glare at him.

"I can take care of myself, _thank you_." you grumble disinterested and pick up pace and his sockets widen when he realizes he just said things out of context.

"U-uh...n..no, _that's not what i meant._.." you turn to sneer at him and he looks away as he rubs the back of his head trying to ignore the warmth on his cheekbones and a small chuckle leaves him, _That came out way wrong_..."Nyheheh no...Sans told me earlier you were an introvert and didn't leave yer house much...i just thought you would enjoy the company." you seemed to while the two of you were talking, _he for sure did._

" _mmhmm_." You mutter skeptically as you turn to march up a small steeply sloped hill. "I asked the other thing because Sans likes ya a lot. I just don't want him chasin after somethin he cant have." you look at him with an unreadable expression but say nothing. 10 minutes of walking in silence and he didn't see anything he could remotely recognize until the two of you reach a very large oak tree riddled with graffiti carved into it and you stop as you place a hand on your hip looking around. "I'm afraid this is as far as i can take you, i need to be getting back home now. surely it shouldn't be a problem for you?" you say gesturing past the tree, when he reaches your side he looks past it and sees the neighborhood along with his house two quarters of a mile away, the lights were still all off so sans was probably still gone."nah, its no problem. Thanks for showing me a quick way out."

"Thank _you_ for coming back to apologize." you give him a small smile and look off to the side as you bite your lip. "...here." you hold out your right hand and slowly a white ball of light starts to form as it accumulate small iridescent specs to it before it forms a tiny stone in the shape of a cube. "use this the next time you and sans want to drop by it will give you a short cut to my house. its only good for two uses.  ** _never_** _lose it."_ he takes it and feels a small buzz coming from it. "thanks, but I can actually just teleport."

" _oh...._ um _...._ That barrier prevents magic entry. you won't be able to get in without an invitation." you gesture to the stone. "I should warn you it also weakens your magic the longer you stay _so make sure you drink that tea_."

_wow, that would have been nice to know before hand._

"It doesn't take your magic, its kinda just...pauses the flow for a while? its like sitting on your legs until their numb for hours and then trying to sprint the moment you get up. Next time you would like to come over, give that a toss in the air." he looks back down to the tiny cube.

"...thanks I-" he looks up to find you gone, looking around he sees nothing but the darkening woods surrounding him and decides to teleport home from there. He reappears in the middle of his room and stumbles when a heavy feeling of light headedness makes him sit. _probably should have just walked_.. he turns the glowing stone over in his hand examining it.

_an invitation huh?... you wanted him to come back._

a smile pulls at the corners of his mouth as he stretches to set it down on his cluttered desk _. He made a new friend.  
_

He leans back to collapse on the bed and sighs, not long his sockets close and he sleeps like a rock for the next three hours until the alarm on his phone goes off. Groaning still exhausted he yawns, reaching under his pillow to shut it off he stretches out the stiffens in his bones and gets ready for work still feeling debilitated. once dressed in his security uniform he grabs the box of fish tea and groggily heads downstairs to make some of it to have before leaving. as he comes down the stairs there's a soft glow coming from the tv as he enters the darkness of the living room he spots his brother slouching on the couch boredly watching tv as he depressingly stuffs his round cheeks with chips. _"hey bro_." papyrus greet him when he gets to the bottom step, sans glances over at him uninterested before flicking his eye lights back to the screen. he was watching some Korean drama on Netflix, he only did it when he moped around. "how'd the shoot go?" He asks and sans doesn't answer him wright away, he looked like he wants to scold him for what he did earlier but was too sad to if the look on his face was anything to go by.  _  
_

"It went fine."He mutters almost flatly and Papyrus slowly strolls past him to head to the dinning room. "What was it for?"

"Just a new energy drink." Sans grumbles as he grabs the nearly empty family size bag of chips and pushes himself off the couch to head into head to his room. He was still mad at him, a smirk almost breaks his calm face as he decides to mess with him a little before telling him the good news. " _Ya still mad at me fat bone?_ " he teases and sans turns to glare/pout at him making him snicker.

" _i went back after you left."_ he says as he watches him leave and Sans whips his skull back over to him with empty sockets. "to yer friends house?...wanted ta finish the chat we had before she kicked us out. Wasn't too happy ta see me." Sans brow bones lower into anger "Papyrus, i swear to the queen if you did _anything_ to-" 

" _-I apologized ta her_." He cuts him off and Sans sockets soften. _sheesh he thought that low of him now?_ "I asked her not ta take it out on you for what I did. She was mad but...shes actually a lot nicer than i thought, she invited me in and we sat and got acquainted for a while. she even invited me back over. wasn't expectin that..." his eye lights slowly come back into view and his brow bones knit together as relief washes over him and he looks down. his mind appeared to be racing as pride surfaces on his face and looks back up to him almost proud."...thank you...for going back."

"I see why you like'er, _gotta say you've got some good taste_." he smirks with a small snicker and the corners of sans mouth curve into a small smile as he starts to gives a chuckle looking back down at the floor nodding.

you were funny, nice, very attractive but what he liked the most about you...

Papyrus rubs the back of his neck as his smile softens."talkin to her was like t-"

"talking to an old friend,right?..." Sans cuts him off as he half laughs as his brow bones knit together. "yeah." papyrus says as a warmth flutters behind his rib cage. Sans smile lowers and looks back down to the floor. ".....papy.. _..I think shes my soulmate._.."

* * *

A week has passed since he last saw you, he's been working overtime back to back since two of his co-workers were out sick and hadn't found the time to come and see you. Sans has been going over everyday without missing a beat since hes told him the news. it was like a blow to the chest when the words left his mouth, he wasn't mad or worried, just shocked. There was no real way of knowing at the moment, you or sans didn't show any signs of being a pair like soulmates typically did the moment they were near or around each other. but with you being a mage it made it harder to tell, and he couldn't see your soul. Sans was probably just head over hills for you and just had a serious crush. Each time he came back home he had something new with him that he would show off to him and it kind of made him jealous, You gave some pretty cool gifts. most of the time it was home cooking that made his manifested taste buds cum, or snacks that frankly tasted better than the brands they sold at the store, _you could cook_ and mages apparently ate magic food more than human food. other times though, sans would come back with geo rocks, or more hand made gifts that seemed personal rather than a random gift to a friend. it was stuff sans actually liked. not things he liked just because you gave it to him, but stuff you had no possible way of knowing he'd like. yes there was the huge possibility that he just _told_ you, but for someone he just met to show that kind of care in giving him a gift said a lot. it lowkey screamed soulmate but he was still doubtful.

thankfully it was the weekend and he had free time to see for himself. getting back home at 9am just as sans is about to head out he shrugs out of his security coat.

"you going to (y/n)'s house?" He nods. "i'll be back in a few hours." he had a more excited than normal look as he squeezes past him. "wait for me and let me change i wanna come." he's never seen how you or sans were around each other aside from the first time he met you. _but he was to busy being prejudice to actually notice anything. now would be a perfect time._

"...o-oh...actually, _can you stay home?_ " 

"Why? i haven't seen'er all week."

"I have something privet to ask her." it was probably for a date from the way he was dressed.

"that don't take a few hours, ask her when i'm not near you guys. I won't get in yer way" he says as he heads upstairs and sans grumbles as he closes the door and plops on the couch to sit and wait. a soulmate...even if you two were that didn't mean you'd have a relationship with one another, in most cases once soulmates found one another they'd just end up being close friends, but some people who where married or in a relationship already would leave their spouse or significant other to be with them. as he enters his room he sighs as he stars to strip out of his clothes leaving him in only a tank top and boxers, then looks for a jacket to throw on, grabbing the pair of shorts he had on the last time he saw you he digs in the pocket for the collar you gave him. he hasn't seen that dog once since you did, not even on the security cameras. he tosses it on the bed and put them on and looks around for the ' _invitation_ ' you gave him cursing when he cant find it. why'd he have to leave it somewhere messy.

* * *

The moment they get there sans bounds up to the door and knocks and a few moments later the door opens as you peek out curiously. "Good morning! How are you today?"

"Hello sans, I'm fine." you say and open the door all the way, when you do he rushes to hug you tightly as a wide smile spreads from metaphoric ear to metaphoric ear. Your hair was styled into box braids and pulled back into a half pony tail and you were wearing a[ _white button up with a black knitted cardigan_ ](https://www.storenvy.com/products/12753697-fashion-star-cardigan-sweater-coat)covered in white stars over it, a black skirt with black [_starry tights_](https://www.storenvy.com/products/10080819-bowknot-night-moon-stars-pastel-kawaii-thigh-high-tights) under it and brown doll shoes. it was cute if not a bit childish assuming your age but then again he didn't actually know how old you were you could pass for 19 but he was positive you were much older. you glance up to him and softly smile when you catch his staring. "come on in." you said warm and welcoming, as they step inside a faint smell of something savory floats in the air as you lead them to the Day Room to have a seat. "can i get you anything?"

"what are you cooking?" Sans asks.

"just some beef stew for lunch later, I thought id just get it out of the way while making breakfast. um, would you like any? did you two eat already?" you look between them. he wasn't going to pass that offer up. "its just stuffed omelettes and toast." you fill him in." omelette(s)? _that sounded good. he still didn't see signs of anyone else here but he if you were cooking for more than one person he was bound to see someone sooner or later._

"sure."

"Can i help you cook lunch?" sans asks and you tried hide the grimace you make. "I have it covered, everything's almost done." _ah so you knew how he was in the kitchen._

"i just want to watch so i can learn, your food is delicious."

"...alright i guess..ill be back in a moment..um...make yourself comfortable." you smile at papyrus as you turn heel to leave out and sans is at your tail following behind you.

 _he staring at your butt._ Papyrus titters under his breath shaking his skull and looks away, he was going to be a handful if you two became a thing. probably five minutes go by when he hears a loud explosive bang followed by a yelp and a large clatter of glass and metal falling to the floor shattering and rumbling as they hit it making him jump. " _Sans!"_ you yell his name angrily. _  
_

_"I'm sorry!"_ he leans forward in his seat to peer into the kitchens hall. _"i told you not to mess with_ _that!"_

" _I was trying to grab the other one_." he hears the angry stomping of your feet followed by sans footfall behind you. when he sees you both you're covered in purple blotches of suet, some weird green goo that was sprouting flowers, as you angrily drag sans behind you like a mother would a child that needed a time out.

"Just... Stay in here. _Please?"_ You grumbled through clenched teeth as you look at sans irritably

_"I was jus-"_

"-And don't touch anything else! _Please._ Just, nothing else in the house." you huff.

"..sorry.. Ok." He quietly nods and you leave to go fix the mess he made of your garden stock from the looks of it. He watched as you leave and waits a few moments until he can't hear your footfall anymore and a large mischievous smile spreads on his face as he excitedly beckons Papyrus over to him. " _come on, while she's busy_." Papyrus raises his brows at him and glances into the hall you left into before quietly following after his brother out of curiosity into anther one away from the kitchen to the one that lead to the bathroom and office.

 "Uh..." Sans looks between the doors and opens and enters the room on the left side. "I've already seen the bathroom, I know it's nice." Hell it was bigger than his room.

As they enter papyrus double takes as he finds himself in the _office room_ again. "Wait I thought this was the bathroom?" He says as he enters and leaves the door cracked so they can hear if you come. he was sure you'd know already. you knew about him snooping before.

"did you ask her whatever you were going'na ask'er" Papyrus questions, he could have just told him back in the day room instead. and sans smiles big rushing over to the window to look inside it, then rushes over to the bookshelf and arranges the books in the same way they are in the other room. Papyrus quirks a brow at him as he slowly strolls to the middle of the room to glance into the window where the room was then over to sans as rushes past him to look back inside it then adjust a few more things as he does it with everything else until the room is identical to the one on the other side of the window. there was large crack running down the middle of it that he doesn't remember being there.

"What are you doing?" Sans smiles and He grabs papyrus's arm. "Turn around." Pulls him until he's facing the table.

"Uh.."

"Shhh." He glances down at him with furrowed brow bones as sans quietly counts up to 5. then pulls papyrus to turn back around to face the window and papyrus makes a sound of shock as his eye lights dim.

_It was a mirror_.

They both stare at their reflection and his eye lights shrink at the sight of he and his brothers appearance. In the mirror was them but...

They looked feral...

His eye lights roam over his reflections dirty, stained and slightly tattered clothes that he clearly was no longer able to fit as his hoodie left most of his spine and the top of his hip bones exposed. papyrus' brow bones knit together as he looks down at his body to find them clean, rip free and glances over to sans to find them normal as well. He turns his eye lights back to the mirror to look at his reflection again.

He looked ready to _fall down_ at any moment as he haggardly hunched over, his eye lights so dim and fuzzy that he could barely make them out in the darkness of his sockets, his bones stained and deep cracks ran along the side of his skull, the lines under his sockets were deeper than they've ever been and a few of his teeth were chipped. He slowly brings his hand up to brush against his teeth as did his reflection but instead pressing against the chipped teeth his reflection had, his digits clanked against perfect flawless ones.

Papyrus then moves his hand up to his nasal bone to feel over the smooth bone as his reflection runs his hand over a large crack running from his nasal bridge over to his eye socket then brings it up to the deep web like one going over his crown where it looked as if he where hit by something that could have possibly killed him.

This was him? But.. _Not him?_ He feels a cold shiver run through his the longer he looked at himself in that state and tares his eye lights away from the mirror to look down at sans to find his smile gone and replaced with a troubled confused look as his brow bones knit together.

Looking back at the mirror to Sans reflection to find it smiling almost predatorily but just like his reflection it looked bad. To start off there was a gaping hole in his skull and webbing cracks around the jagged edges of it making his brows knit into disgust and his soul cringes at the vary sight of his brother being in such state. His teeth were sharp and bones stained like his own mirroring image but also much thicker and looked taller than he actually was as did himself. His clothes dirty with questionable stains and partially torn in a few spots.  He got the sudden feeling that they should put everything back and leave.

 He's about to voice it to sans when he speaks. "I-i'm different this time..." sans voice came out so small and confused. papyrus looks down at him to see discomfort riddled all over his face. "last time i did this and saw myself _i looked normal...but..now it looks like something_ _bad happened_."

"What do you mean last time, what is this?" Papyrus muttered confused as he looked down at him. "I watched (y/n) come in here once to ask herself for advice or what to do when she was at a loss with something. _Her reflection knew._ " and it hits papyrus like a train and he feels like the weight of a ton of brick drops on his chest.

 

_Its a timeline mirror_.

 

What they were seeing now was them in a different timeline and from the looks of it, _a really bad one_. They looked like horror shows His eye lights look at Sans' mirror images skull and feels his nonexistent stomach flop when his eyelights drop down to his face to see at his little brothers double staring at him instead of Sans.

" _Sans, put everything back. We shouldn't be in here._ " He said tugging firmly on his arm but sans shrugs him off.

"I needed to ask him something."  He says, sockets never leaving the mirror. He slowly steps forward and his reflection turns his attention back to him.

As he slowly gets closer to the mirror with an uneasy look, his mirror image approaching as well with a large smile. " _don't_." Papyrus says and flicks his eye lights back at the door

Once he's just two feet away he clears his throat. " _I need help_." The mirror glosses over before clearing again, he waits expectingly and nothing happens "oh," he slowly takes out your wand and papyrus sockets widen at him shocked as panic starts to grow in deep within him. _How in the fuck did you manage to sneak that off you. he was being really mischievousness with you around and it wasn't like him to act like this._ He raises it slowly up to the mirror and gently presses it to the surface making it ripple like water then steps back lowing the wand to his side. A sizzling sound fills the room and papyrus looks down to the wand to find it vibrating as it buzzes with hot magic. _He shouldn't be touching a witches wand._ It was dangerous and he could mess something up or get them killed. He he knew you weren't the kind of witch that took monster magic.

_But that didn't say your wand couldn't.  
_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have not been bringing my A game with ending these....  
> I'll have more reader pov in the future along with sans pov and try to not make the same mistake i did in SLS were i backtracked and literally rewrote a whole chapter instead of putting forward moving plot in it.  
> and there you have it. Horrorswap has been added....this is about to get a little gore heavy.  
> horrorswap belongs to spookyswap on Tumblr. (there will be NO fontcest in this story don't misinterpret the tags)  
> follow me on Tumblr @sardoniccs-blog.tumblr.com for- ah well... idk there isn't anything worthwhile on there...do whatever you want...might be gone for a while.


	14. Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Sans wait!" That's not what you meant, you rush to jump up to stop him when a purple light ignites the tip of the wand and you try to pull his arm away but its too late. a loud crack followed by a bang and a flash of light is heard as you're all immediately knocked back and the mirror partially shatters as glass falls onto the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter could have been better I guess. It's amazing me how many ppl think reader is evil for some reason. Like do y'all really not notice how rude of house guests the us!Brothers are?? Her feels are valid.

"H..h-hi sans." He says to himself nervously and his reflections face light up with a smile.

 

"H-HI!" Anxiety lurches through Papyrus's soul as sans reflection speaks back to him. his voice as identical to his brother's appearance if not a bit scratchy. His eyes flick over to his own reflection and the feeling worsens when he finds him staring back at intensely as if he was contemplating something. "I need advice." The words left Sans mouth uneasy as if contemplating whether or not he should go through with asking. the other sans waits expectingly as his smile grow.

"Uhm...Do you know how to take someone whos special heart for yourself?..." _if these doppelgangers looks were anything to go by,_ _this one was defiantly not the right one to ask._

_"OF COURSE."_ his red starry eye light brighten _._

A loud sharp gasp interrupts him making him jump. " **WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?** " they both jump wiping their skulls around to find you standing in the doorway with an enraged look. Sans looks like he's about to piss himself if he could with how he immediately shrunk into himself waving one of his hand in front of him as he tries to hide the wand behind his back when you stomp over to him. " ** _And what are you doing with my wand!?_** " 

"I-i didn't iiiwussjustu-u-uhm i-i-iididnt." Your hand twists into the shoulder of his shirt yanking him to the side and snatching the wand out of his clenched hand making him flinch hard and shrink further into himself.

" **I TOLD YOU _NEVER_ TO COME IN HERE!** " You growled, voice full of rage he really doesn't like the way your yelling at sans and glares at you but its wiped clean from his face when you turn your attention to him, glaring so hard that he was sure he would have been killed 10 times over. it was obvious that they fucked up big time.

" _Both of you. Get. Out. Right now_." You growl loudly. They both quickly turn to leave and the mirror starts to blur with black frost around the edges as the room suddenly becomes cold and a thick haze starts to fill the room making you gasp and look around.

_With you inside the room is no longer mirroring the one in the mirror this could only spell trouble._

Your fears are confirmed as they reach the door they meet a resistance as if walking into a wall.

"Fuck..fuck, _fuck_." You quickly cross the room to yank sans back and move away from the mirror and wave at papyrus to come to you. "Go stand next to him, turn away from the mirror. And put everything back _exactly_ the way it was when you came in here." Sans does as you told him to while papyrus stands still and watched him as nervousness rises inside him. As he quickly moves to the bookcase first, he starts to pull at the books but nothing budges.

"U-uhm." He rushes to the table with the flower to place them back as they were but nothing will move, as if glued down. "I-It won't move!" He says as he struggles to pry it from its spot and you start to panic.

"Fuck..." You swallow hard and slowly turn to look at the mirror with deeply knitted brows.

They called for help to a bad timeline...

You slowly move to stand in front of the mirror and raise your wand, papyrus and sans turns to look at you nervously as you were. Their mirror images stare at you too, Papyrus's double blank and bored as he watches you with little interest but sans' _excitedly_. a bright ball of light shines at the tip and a blast zips towards the mirror only to backlashing at you and burning your hand. You drop the wand with a scream of pain and clench your hand to yourself as you fall to your knee squeezing your eyes shut tight. Hissing you open them to look down at your hand to find it blackened with black webbing veins spreading upwards on your arm.

"What the hell?" you muttered confused. With a shaky hand you reach to pick your wand up but the moment you touch it, it starts to crack and you gasp letting go. You turn to glare at sans and he flinched back the moment your eyes land on him. "Undo what you did." You growl and he panicky rushes to your side and snatched it up. The wood doesn't crack under his touch and instead start to glow blue within the cracks making your eyes widen as he points it at the mirror.

"Sans wait!" _That's not what you meant,_ you rush to jump up to stop him when a purple light ignites the tip of the wand and you try to pull his arm away but it's too late. a loud crack followed by a bang and a flash of light is heard as you're all immediately knocked back and the mirror partially shatters as glass falls onto the floor.

When the smoke clears a little you open your eyes to look at the mirror in fear to find a larger crack crookedly going down the side and a fraction of the mirror is blacked out. You quickly look around the room and your stomach drops when you find sans standing at the far corner with his hands braced against the wall as he looked fearfully at his mirror image standing in front of him with a too wide for anyone's liking smile.

Your eyes flick over to papyrus to find him petrified as he stares at the taller mirroring image of himself who was looking around the room before his dim eyelights landed on you. For a long moment he just stares at you then he scoffs before full out laughing.

"We're finally out of that hell hole..." he says and his sans turns to look excitedly at you and his eyelights brighten as he speedwalks over to you as you scramble back to try to get away from him.

"ITS HER ISNT IT? I CAN TELL, YOU WANT HER HEART DONT YOU?" He says loudly and excitedly and your eyes flick between the two of them confusedly.

_What the fuck was he trying to do!?_

He grabs your ankle yanking you to him, his bony hand cold and rough as it painfully tightens his grip on it as you try to pull away, only for him to easily pin it to the floor with his knee. Your shocked at how stong he is, he immediately straddles you making you grunt as his much heavier body rests on your waist, pinning you to the ground as his smile widens and raises his right hand as the other twists into your button up taring it open in one sharp tug.

A sharp bone starts to materialize in it. Your eyes widen.

"THE BEST WAY IS CUTTING THROUGH THE TORSO, OF COURSE!" He says and swiftly brings the bone down aiming at your chest. Sans gasps sharply as his hands fly up to his mouth watching in horror unable to do anything. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally right?


End file.
